God's Grace

How to Stay in God's Grace

Gal. 5:4 "You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."

What is grace? Often times people think grace and mercy are the same thing, but no, mercy is God forgiving our sins and grace is God giving us the ability to live a good and holy life. Grace is God's provision for us and his blessings to us with things we don't deserve. Grace is God's good favor towards us.

But Paul says there is a way that we can "fall from grace." What is this? If we try to justify ourselves by the law. The grace in this sense would be the grace that God gives us to live a righteous life through his Holy Spirit. But if we start to think that we can be righteous on our own, God cuts off his grace that helps us to live righteously. If we think we don't need God, he can cut off this provision from us. Like the verse that pride comes before a fall. When we are prideful and think we can be righteous on our own, God will let us fall.

In a sermon by Joseph Prince he was just saying that if we are worried about an area in our lives, that that can cut off God's grace in that area. It is the same concept; when we worry we start to take try to take control of a situation. Worry is us trying to control an area of our lives instead of surrenduring it to God. When we try to take the steering wheel in any area, then God lets go. God will let us try to do things on our own, even though he knows we will fail. We then cut God's grace off ourselves when we try to do things on our own.

In Mark 2:17 Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." What he meant by this was that he did not come to heal those who do not think they need to be healed. He only heals those who know they need to be healed. If we think we don't need God, if we think we are already healthy or can be righteous on our own, then God cannot move in our lives. If we are self-righteous and think that we can be holy on our own, then God's grace will not extend to us to help us. God only helps those, or gives grace to those, who know they need help. As James says, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." When people are prideful, God will not help them, and He even opposes them.

So don't be overly confident in your own abilities. Don't think that you can handle driving the car of your own life. Surrendur every area of your life to God. Ask for His grace. Acknowledge that you need his grace to help you to live the holy life that he wants you to live. See that as Jesus said, apart from Him you can do nothing. Don't try to do it on your own, because "pride comes before a fall." Let go and let God do it. Amen. May God bless you! Thank you for reading. :)