A Thought

“Since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.  For our God is a consuming fire.”  Hebrews 12:28-29

The writer of Hebrews seemed to believe our Lord deserves far better than what we seem to offer him today.  He suggests “grace” is that means by which we may offer anything to the Lord “acceptably”, yet “grace” seems to have become our “alibi”, our “excuse” for not trying harder (or not trying at all) to serve Him in an acceptable way.

We must remember that the biblical language of “grace” is defined, very simply, as the Lord’s favor bestowed on us – favor for which we are not worthy, favor we cannot earn but given earnestly and purely from His own heart.  A gift we know we cannot reciprocate adequately.  Yet when someone gets us a gift we did not expect, do we not do the socially acceptable – and EXPECTED – thing and rush out to get a return gift so as to not look foolish or ungrateful?  Why, then, would we do any less if we know that such a grand gift has been freely offered to us from our Lord; the Lord we profess, the Lord we claim has “saved” us?

We have been given much in the way of “grace”, but we have not been excused from serving Him daily.  Indeed why would we even want to be excused from such?  For if we cannot or will not serve Him in this life, what makes us think we will want to serve Him in the Life which is to come? Compared to what our world demands from us in the form of bills and taxes and other requirements that cannot be neglected, our Lord really does not ask for much and yet offers so much.  This reality is worthy of a reverent and intensely respectful response.

Blessings,

Michael