Grace

DEVOTION
1 TIMOTHY
GRACE
1 Tim 6:21
Grace be with you.
NIV
I need all of that I can get. I really need all the grace I can get. Why in the world would anyone turn down grace? No matter how this word is used, whether an act of being gracious on God’s part toward me, or his divine influence on my heart and how that is reflected in my life, I need all of either one I can get. I cannot imagine living through life without grace. Now I supposed if I were perfect and never ever committed another sin, I would not need grace. I suppose if I simply stopped committing another sin, I would simply not be in any need of any influence on my heart for I would be perfect. I think if I never failed God in any way I would not need him to act gracious toward me. But that is not the case, I still fail him, I still end up coming up short of perfection and certainly need his grace. I would think this grace as an act of graciousness could be defined as Jesus on the cross, and so no other act of graciousness is needed by God. But I think that may not be completely true. I think he continuously acts in a gracious manner toward me, whenever I fail. He sees me through Jesus and forgives me, embraces me, and tells me let’s try it again; I know you will get it sooner or later and overcome. How much more gracious could that be? But he also tells me that he is trying his best to influence my heart, I simply have to allow him more access. I think the old self still fights pretty hard to have that control and works to shut out his influence. I am not sure how that could be since I was supposed to put that old self to death. But it is a hard thing to kill off completely. Why doesn’t he just kill it, so all is left is my new self, a perfect human being, always doing the will of God, never giving in to any temptation at all, always being on the top of my game, acting and reacting within the perfect will of God. I think when he said his grace is all I need, he knew how difficult life is, how perfection is way too illusive and I will always be in need of his grace, and that is all I really need anyway. Anything else is just fluff and puff, icing on the cake in comparison to his grace.