Dear Ones:
God is sometimes not a reality to us because we do not believe in the imminence of His presence, and the iminence of His present attitude towards the believer. We have the tendency to always relate everything in life to what we can see or grasp intellectually. We forget that the person of Jesus Christ is forever the same, yesterday, today…always.
There is no variation in Him, hence His dealings with us are with a resolute and fixed attitude, one that never changes. We are seen by the Father as being IN CHRIST, and nothing of sense or time will change this. So, why do we not live more in the love of God, the peace of Christ, and the power of the Spirit? Simply because we do not believe. And we do not believe because we have not come to grips with the truth…the absolute truth in Christ, His word, and His Spirit of His PRESENT grace.
When Paul asked the Lord Jesus three times to remove the “thorn in the flesh, ” the Lord answered, “My grace IS sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9) Why the thorn? Most certainly the create a continual sense of need in the Apostle’s heart. Because of thee “abundance of revelations” that Paul had received of the Lord, the thought could have entered in his mind that he, as compared to all else, was above others. The thorn in the flesh brought him down to earth, to the reality of the need of those around him…and he was a part of that need. How then to live in this “very present” condition where we are faced on a daily basis with very present need? By grasping the truth of the present, imminent grace of God. But not only grasping the presence of the grace of God, but the active availability and provision of all BY His grace. When the Lord says “My grace is sufficient for thee…,” He is saying that from Heaven itself, by the Spirit, He is ready and willing to meet any and every need of the heart, soul, and body, BY and because of His grace.
In James’ epistle, he makes a very simple, but profound statement: “…He (God) giveth more grace…God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” (Ja.4:6) Here the Lord is saying the same thing through James that He said through Paul. The perpetual attitude of God is that He IS gracious, that His grace IS sufficient, and His grace is given in answer to a certain attitude of heart. Our lack of the experience of this ever present grace boils down to our unbelief, and our hesitancy to ask, in order to receive. “Ye have not, because ye ask not.” (4:2)
So, today, let us not be unbelieving, but abounding in faith…calling upon the Lord, and receiving in answer to faith, His grace for the present moment, from the Present Lord by His Spirit. He is faithful; He cannot deny Himself. “…He WILL do it.”
Love, Dad