By: Robert D Rogers
Many of us have learned to give thanks when the Lord brings great blessings into our lives, and some have learned to be grateful even for the smallest crust of bread. Even so, there is yet another degree of gratefulness that causes the grace of God to flow in our life with unceasing power. That is when we have learned to boast in our difficulties, insults, sufferings, and persecutions. Did you know the word "gratitude" has at its root in the word "grace." Grace and gratitude are twin sisters that adorn the true Christian with the glory of God. Nothing will release the fullness of God's provision in our life like true gratefulness. To be genuinely grateful in every situation requires a degree of humility that few have attained.
James 4:6
6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:
"God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble."
NKJV
Mankind is notorious for taking that which was meant for good and using it for wicked and evil purposes. Let us take for instance the vast array of media available to all of us. This media can be used to quickly and efficiently supply communications across the globe to waiting family members. Indeed multitudes of military families have been comforted by seeing their loved ones, who are serving in harm's way, appear on their laptop. Yet the same media has created a market for sex slavery and pornography of incomprehensible proportions. Drugs that are used to make operations painless and relieve suffering are often used in such a way as to bring countless men, women, boys, and girls into mindless addictions.
Indeed we can state the same thing for just about anything we can imagine. Guns can be used to protect us from thugs and terrorists and at the same time can spread the worst kind of fear and death imaginable. Yes mankind can and does take that which is meant for good and uses it for evil purposes. Yet one of my favorite prayers is, "Lord please take that which Satan means for evil and turn it for good! Let him be caught in his own snares and traps." This prayer has often transformed a time of suffering into great victories when prayed consistently and fervently.
Even so some take the message of God's great and abiding grace and use it for an occasion to live an undisciplined and Christ dishonoring life. This is a great and wicked mishandling of the truth that sets men free. Yet we do not throw medicine away because some horribly misuse it, and we do not discard our technology because multitudes use it to spread pornography. Neither do we stop preaching the marvelous "Grace of God" because others abuse it. The correct use of medicine provides care and comfort to billions of suffering humanity. How much more does the message of God's grace bring hope and deliverance to mankind that has been sold into sin and has no way of escape?
No! Let us that have experienced the grace of God be the greatest preachers and teachers of its fathomless truth. The more I dwell on grace and bathe in its fullness the more the agape love of God consumes my heart. True grace destroys ungratefulness and leads us to such brokenness that our hearts cry out for mercy even for our enemies. Like Jesus our prayer for those who despitefully use us is, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." True grace convicts and convinces us of our own corruption to such a degree we have no heart to condemn and judge others. Yet at same time the true message of Grace is not a weak soft or undisciplined doctrine. For we know in our hearts that if our great and loving God failed to discipline and correct us, we would blindly and arrogantly run down the path of destruction. No, true grace embraces those seasons of trial and suffering that our beloved Father permits. Even as the apostle stated after crying out to God to deliver him from his "thorn in the flesh."
2 Cor 12:7-10
7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
How can this apostle state that not only can he boast about his suffering but he also delights in sufferings, insults, persecutions, and difficulties? For those who do not understand that the path of grace leads to ever increasing brokenness and humility, it is impossible. To those who walk in this grace, and have discovered that it leads into the very presence of God, it is a truth that becomes as sweet as honey.
Ps 16:11
11 You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
NKJV
Dear one, have you come to the place that you hunger for the discipline that drives ungratefulness from your heart? Have you learned that your pride is keeping you from enjoying the sweet abiding presence of the Lord? Do you fret when the Lord finds it necessary to humble you? Has your heart become so soft that like the apostle Paul you can not only delight, but also boast that your heavenly Father has chosen this path to pour His grace into your life? As much as I love my spiritual sons and daughters I cannot ask the Lord to lift His beloved hand of discipline from them until the sweetness of grace is pouring forth in their lives.
How will I know I have yielded to this grace, and the Lord can lift the discipline and usher me into a time of sweet and abiding blessings? It will take place when we can truly say with the apostle -
Phil 4:11-12
11 ... for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little.
12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of contentment in every situation, whether it be a full stomach or hunger, plenty or want;
13 for I can do everything God asks me to with the help of Christ who gives me the strength and power.
TLB
Further we will know because we have no heart to condemn or judge others. For we know our own hearts are "desperately wicked," and without grace there would be no hope for us. We will know when we are able to intercede with deep love and passion for those who have hurt us the most. Knowing that somehow in our intercession for others, our own hearts are being delivered from pride and ingratitude.
Imagine...
a body of Christian believers all speaking, declaring, and proclaiming God's strategic word for this moment in history. Will you join us in this strategic moment of history so that the Church may fulfill its end-time destiny?
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