GRACE OF GOD
6th of 7 devotions in Labor Day Rest series
Luke 2:40: “And the child grew and became strong; He was
filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.”
The
opening Scripture shows that the grace of God came upon Jesus while He lived on
Earth. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God
made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
Why
did Jesus need God’s grace—since He never sinned?
The
first time we see the word “grace” in the Bible is found in Genesis 6:8. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord.” (King James Version). The very next verse says, “Noah was a
righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” We can see why God favored Noah with grace. No one else in Noah’s time loved God.
Here’s
the kicker: Noah’s name means “rest.”
Rest
found grace.
Jesus
said in John 5:19, “I tell you the truth, the Son can
do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees the Father doing, because
whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
Jesus trusted the Father
to show Him what to do. So…“the grace of
God was upon” Jesus because He lived a life of rest, trusting His Father.
Christians
can copy Jesus and also have God’s grace upon us. How simple it is to live a life of rest by
trusting God!
People
of the world would disagree. But
Christians are different. The world
watches Believers endure hardship and never freak out. Those of
the world worry. Only Believers in the world rest by trusting God.
What
does that mean? Let’s say that your dad
lost his job. Naturally, he’d pray for
God to bring him a new job. The rent is
due every month. So is the car
payment. Food runs out every week. What does your “God’s grace upon dad”
do? He calmly drives to the workforce
and applies for new jobs. He trusts God
to bring him a new job. Maybe even one
that’s better. He comes home, plays with
his kids and sleeps soundly.
Take
Home Nugget
Your
neighbor is also out of work. But he worries,
listing things on EBay to sell. He mopes
around the house.
Your
neighbor watches your dad playing with his kids. You overhear him say, “It’s like he’s on
vacation!”
You
know your dad’s secret is turning problems over to and trusting God.
Heavenly
Father, I trust You. Thank You for allowing
me to rest in Your grace. I watch You
work out Your perfect will for my life—in Jesus’ name, Amen.
HAPPY LABOR DAY, USA!
Addendum: All three of the gospel stories in the
lesson that’s linked below show people who must have struggled a very long time
to improve their situations. But their
efforts failed. By the time they gave
their problems to Jesus, they had all but given up trying to improve their
quality-of-life. Let us learn the
lesson: God wants us to cease from all our struggling and accept His offer to
turn our situations around. All three
miracles were performed on the Sabbath, the day of rest for the Jews. God’s
Word says, “There remains a day of rest for the people of God.”
The
day you cease from your own laboring and striving, and rest in the finished word of Christ, is the day you will receive
your miracle.
Adapted from a
devotion from “Daily Grace Ministries” by Joseph Prince. www.josephprinceministries@josephprince.org.
June 30, 2015.
J.D. Griffith
Written
for http://www.Biblestudyforkids.com
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