...by Gordon Barker
A good friend of mine was praying to close our community group meeting the other night and he started his prayer thanking God for his continual love and continual grace. His intentional use of the word “continual” has stayed with me. I was reminded of this again in the scripture Greg used this past Sunday. Paul describes all of the reasons that he could use to put confidence in himself: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But of course Paul then corrects this thinking and acknowledges the true source of righteousness; not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. We call this grace. I’ve heard grace best described as “getting something that you don’t deserve”. But when it comes to God’s grace, I want to add the word continual to this definition; “continually getting something that I don’t deserve.” Fortunately for us, this is not a one-time gift, it is truly continual.
Greg left us with another one of those questions on Sunday that we don’t like to think about.
In an honest assessment, I give my heart more to ________________ than to knowing Christ.
I am hopeful that the more I accept and reflect on God’s continual love and continual grace that fewer things will be filling in this blank.
Thanks to Kevin McHugh for a heartfelt prayer.
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