Over the past December holidays I was extremely glad to put school on hold. It was great at first until I realized I was also spiritually “on hold”. I stopped reading my Bible, hardly ever prayed and was just really sluggish. Even after I realized this I didn’t change anything. To be honest I had no real desire to change anything at that point. Looking back on this I believe it was one of my all time lows. Nothing I did was fun anymore and I became extremely bored and almost depressed.
Thanks to the grace of God the Holy Spirit put a desire in me to again read the Word and devote myself to Him. After just that first quiet time by myself I was feeling rejuvenated. While being on hold over the holidays I was numb, but was brought back to the reality that I need God. Without Him I am nothing and can be nothing.
It’s hard to put into words how great the grace of God is. Without it where would we be?
This all happened just before the start of the next school year. The timing was perfect. God’s grace prepared me to work hard this year for His honour and glory.
What makes this even more amazing is God’s providence in all of this. The first book I had to read for school was The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges*. In it he deals with the believer’s pursuit of holiness and God’s grace. It seemed to speak right to where I was. No doubt this is how God was using it.
I use myself as an example just to remind you all of how dependant we are on the grace of God. Often we can take it for granted or even take advantage of it. Paul’s argument against this is brilliant:
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” - Romans 6:1-4
As believers God’s grace isn’t an excuse to do whatever we want. Rather it is motivation to serve God better. By God’s grace we can take all our sins to Him and as unworthy as we are they will be forgiven.
* By the way I highly recommend that you read this book. It will be of great help in your pursuit of holiness.
