DO NOT FORGET
“Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:11-13 NLT
It is interesting how human beings tend to forget so quickly.
In fact one of the reasons children of Israel kept relearning the same lessons in their wilderness was because they forgot God’s miracles and provisions no sooner had they happened.
Paul hammers the nail by reminding even those of us who are saved to remember that there was a time we were purely strangers to the covenant in which we have been welcomed. He emphasizes that under the mandate of oneness and peace in Christ, so that when we are tempted to withhold grace, we may consider how much of it we ourselves have freely received of it.
Child of God, the only thing that may tempt us to withhold grace is a deeply engrained belief that there is a degree of merit in our ways that justifies why we deserve it and another doesn’t.
The prayer then is that we may humble ourselves and ask the holy spirit to reveal these areas and to help us reframe our posture.
Prayer: Father I thank you for this wisdom. Your grace and mercy are free that no man may boast. Help me to always remember how far you have brought me and extend the same grace to others, to the glory of your name. Amen!
CI.
