Currency of Grace

How often do we expect more from God than his grace?  In trials, in work, in marriage, school and life, are we often complaining or disappointed because we are discontent with our circumstances?  Yet the wonderful grace from God gives us so much more than we often realize, and we forget.  At least myself, I often forget about it.  Yet it is the only real thing that will last.  God knows this, and lavishly pours it upon us with purpose and intentionality.  It seems that grace is the currency, the real estate, the rising stocks in Heaven.  Are we then not the richest in the world?  Yet more times than not this lacks in our psyches and doesn't produce enough encouragement to us to stave off depression that plagues the church.  We are seen as a people often fake or discouraged, downtrodden or confused.  What kind of testimony are we proclaiming to those who have no context with God except through us and the life we live as an example?

 

We look around us and believe that that which we see should our hope be focused on.  And when we view our lives without the currency of grace, we long for and desire what others have.  What do we focus on?  We focus on others, on things that catch our attention, and in our mistaken fervor for things to satisfy and get us out of our discouragement or depression, we take our eyes off the prize that is already ours.  Our eternal place is secure, yet we focus on this earthly realm as if all of our strength and attention should be given to it because we place so much emphasis on it.  But what here will last?  Will our love?  Will our character?  Will our things or hobbies or fantasy sports leagues?  Will it matter how many songs we have on our IPod or how far we got on our video games?  Will it matter who has the best recipes or who knows the most gossip?  What will last? 

 

I believe that the only, and I mean only thing that will last will be God's grace, for that is the transitional piece to Heaven.  Without an overwhelming abundance of it in our lives, we will not be secure for the future.  There in must we realize daily that we do indeed receive this grace, not because of anything we have done, but because it is freely ours to receive.  Everything else in life must be worked for with effort, intentionality and zeal.  But the currency of grace cannot be earned.  So what are we left to do?  We focus on that which doesn't fade away; on those things that will indeed last.  The modus operendi (sp?) of every believer is thus: to "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Corinthians 4.18).  Every person who has been impacted by this intoxicating and certainly irresistible grace is indeed richer and wealthier than anyone who hasn't.  We are truly heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Though we are sojourners here on earth, we are the wealthiest as well. 

 

If we want to focus on riches, we might as well know the truth.  Who has been given as much as us; as much as those who believe in the saving grace of Christ and his work on the cross?  We indeed are the richest.  I say we gather up our courage, gather up what is left of our strength, and fight with the truth that is God's grace.  We hold the keys to the storerooms of the wealthiest and most powerful King this world will ever know.  The currency of grace is ours, freely, and we will never be left wanting. 

In His Grip,

 

Daniel Parkins

 

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