Forever and Ever

DEVOTION
GALATIONS
FOREVER AND EVER
Gal 1:3-5
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
NIV
I will take all the grace and peace he wants to hand out in my direction. Now knowing grace is his divine influence on my heart in most cases I wonder if in this case if it is not meant in the sense of an act of graciousness. That is God has done an act of graciousness toward me, in the person of Jesus Christ. It was him and only him who could possibly rescue me from the present age of evil and for my sin. I surely cannot do either. I need all, every last amount available, of his graciousness, but I also need every just as much of his divine influence on my heart in keeping me from being sucked back into the present age of evil in which I live. So either way I see this, I need his grace. And with it I am surely glad and grateful I can have his peace. I can have the prosperity within my spirit which again only comes from him. When I am able to have life and have it more abundantly within my inner being and in that sense my spirit is growing and thriving within the presence of my God, yet could it also be that I am no longer at war with him, but have signed a peace treaty and now I am at peace with God? That is a true statement but I am convinced in this application it is the first. This is something which comes from him to me, his grace and his peace, his act of graciousness and his prospering my spirit all being accomplished the giving of Jesus Christ for my sin and his act of rescuing me from an evil age. How can I ever repay him? I cannot, it is his will to have done it for me because he loves me. That is just too awesome to comprehend. If I could pay him back, with what would I be able to? Nothing, not even my wonderful obedient behavior, what a joke! Even though I still fail him, even though I still am disobedient in some areas of my life, he still bestows his grace and peace toward me in all of his power without reservation or expectation of repayment simply because he is God. Of that I am extremely grateful and I will give him the Glory forever and ever all the days of my life, both here and there.