Hello everyone.
In this blog post, I am sharing part 1 of one of the most powerful truths that I have discovered to date: the powerful vastness of God’s merciful, grace-filled, victorious, transforming power and how to receive and be transformed by God. I hope that you all will be blessed by reading this blog post as I was by writing it.
In order for God’s merciful, victorious, and transforming power to be seen for the incredibly amazing gift that it is, we must first see the profoundly disturbing reality of our sins which have made God’s grace necessary in our lives.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23 (KJV)
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)
“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” Job 14:4 (KJV)
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jeremiah 13:23 (KJV)
“Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.” Psalm 19:12 (KJV)
Sin is terrible. Sin is very often disguised and then it looks interesting or fun, or it looks like the solution to our problems, but when sin is undisguised, it is UGLY! Sin hurts all of us! I have been hurt by my own sins, as well as by the sins of others, and I have hurt other people by my sins. I’m sick and tired of sin! There is no good to be found in it! Apart from God, there is even selfishness mixed into the good things that we do.
Now that we have established that sin is in no way good and that we are full of sin, we must find a solution. A cheap grace that allows us to soften and/or diminish the seriousness of sin, and excuse ourselves for continuing in it, is not enough. We MUST find the incredibly merciful, grace-filled, victorious, and transforming power of God, which is great enough to cleanse and purify us from sin. Sin is depressing; It is high time that we now turn to hope. Let us turn there now.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 (KJV)
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Ezekiel 36:26-27 (KJV)
“And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.” Ezekiel 11:19-20 (KJV)
In these verses, we can see that God is able to radically change our hearts! And why does He do this?
“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103:8-12 (KJV)
“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:18-19 (KJV)
“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-23 (KJV)
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)
What a beautiful reality! God is able to save us! We have done nothing to earn His grace, and yet He freely offers it to us. What a pity and what a tragedy it is when any of us reject His incredible, costly (because He paid a high price in order to be able to offer this to us), and yet freely offered grace!
We will discuss how to accept and benefit from God’s incredible grace in our next blog post. I am still on the journey of learning how to allow God’s grace to be active in my life: how to surrender to and cooperate with God’s efforts to save me from sin. I have had victories and I have fallen too and have had to get up again (1 John 1:9, Proverbs 24:16, and Micah 7:8.)
I am so grateful for God’s persistent love and mercy and I can clearly see that He has a powerful and necessary journey for all of us: one that leads to the best results that there can possibly be. I hope that you all will stay tuned with me on this powerful journey to true hope and freedom.
Blessings and courage to all. 🙂
Learn and Grow 4ever 