Chapter 12
HIS GRACE FOR YOUR NEEDS
And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
2 CORINTHIANS 9:8 NIV
107 What Is Grace?
Imagine someone dumped garbage on your doorstep. You investigated and found four pieces of your neighbor’s junk mail. You didn’t expect such disrespect.
Three days later he knocked on your door and asked for a loan to pay his rent. You refused.
Instead, you said, “I’ll give you twice as much money as you want. You don’t have to pay me back.” That’s grace—giving others what they don’t deserve.
You’ve dumped your moral and spiritual garbage on God’s doorstep. Instead of severely punishing you for your disrespect and insubordination, He offers to adopt you as His child.
That’s the meaning of grace, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9 NIV).
Even the ability to believe and receive this astounding, 100 percent undeserved offer is a gift from God. It’s not based at all on your virtuous deeds.
But grace is much more. Salvation is about becoming whole, healthy people physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, psychologically, relationally, vocationally, and financially.
Grace is the dynamic, unseen, exceedingly powerful force that makes it happen. God’s Spirit, word, and Son are His agents of grace.
The Holy Spirit graciously fills and gifts you with special abilities to serve God and others (Ephesians 5:18, 1 Corinthians 12:1–11). The word of God’s grace builds you up and gives you an inheritance (Acts 20:32).
Jesus intercedes for you before God’s throne to provide the grace to help in your time of need (Hebrews 4:15–16). In every situation, you can be strong in the grace that is in Christ (2 Timothy 2:1).
Grace overcomes your weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). It takes the shape of your need, whatever it is, in your journey toward becoming like Jesus (1 John 3:2).
Ask God for the grace you need to bless at least one person today for His glory. Read Acts 18.
108 Disturbing Grace
I wrote a hymn, Disturbing Grace, to sing to the tune of Amazing Grace. John Newton had no idea how popular his hymn would become.
Written in 1779, it’s the most popular Christian hymn today. My hymn won’t displace his anytime soon! Grace disturbs before it amazes! Before it lifts and frees, it convicts and zings. It shakes a proud, self-sufficient ego like a magnitude 9.5 earthquake.
About 1748, Newton came face to face with his need for God’s amazing grace. Only that could save a wretch like him. I’ve read his biography. He wasn’t exaggerating the “wretch like me” part!
Before you can stop at the divine service station and pray, “Fill it up with amazing grace,” you must call the offender in Monday morning’s mirror a wretch. That’s reality and disturbing.
The Magi announced their desire to worship the recently born King of the Jews. That disturbed both Herod and all of Jerusalem (Matthew 2:3).
Grace disturbs before it amazes. I invite you to read (and even sing) the following hymn.
Disturbing grace shook my soul; It showed me all my sins.
I’d lived for years like my own king; I lived my life for me.
Then slowly, gently grace released; My soul it did set free.
Disturbing grace once gripped my heart; it turned my eyes above.
A rebel who deserved to die; How foolish I had been.
God’s very throne I had usurped; yet that I couldn’t see.
I soared to heights I’d never known; an eagle’s wings on me.
Amazing grace He did bestow; He filled my heart with love.
How was grace disturbing in your life before it was amazing?
Read Acts 19.
109 Shape-Shifting Grace
I batted stones in my driveway for hours in my youth. I imagined I was various major league baseball players of the day. Sharing their names would reveal my age. No, Ty Cobb wasn’t among them! Neither was Babe Ruth!
Do you want to be like someone else? Would you choose to be more rich, good-looking, athletic, popular, healthy, strong, respected, thin, smart, or socially adept?
You have significant limitations. We all do. You’re a caterpillar who looks adoringly at fluttering butterflies. Your heroes reveal what you prize.
The good news is that if you want to be like Jesus, shape-shifting grace is available 24/7.
Paul wrote, “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9). After describing specific wrongdoing, he encouraged his readers by writing, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
Caterpillars became butterflies through God’s shape-shifting grace. They still do.
How so? Proud, self-involved people learn to serve others humbly. Formerly dejected, downcast pessimists find light to replace their darkness.
Those who knew only strife, discord, and tumult find peace. Those who complained about minor inconveniences put up silently with major ones. People who formerly didn’t care about others’ needs, sacrifice willingly to meet them.
Whatever it takes to transform you from a spiritual caterpillar to a spiritual butterfly, shape-shifting grace accomplishes. Like God, it’s everywhere and all-powerful. It provides whatever you need to become more like Jesus.
How does God’s shape-shifting grace give you the confidence to complete today’s divine assignments, whatever they are? Read Acts 20.
110 Idle Words
I stopped hunting more than 50 years ago. Until now, I’ve never told anyone this story.
I was small game hunting with my brothers. I unintentionally pulled the trigger of a loaded shotgun. Fortunately, I didn’t hurt anyone, but thoughts of the harm I could’ve done haunted me.
Unfortunately, I’ve pulled the trigger of my mouth and fired words at others that inflicted painful wounds. Sometimes they’ve left permanent scars. You have also.
Perhaps, you’d never shoot an animal. But humans are fair game. Sometimes you fire words carelessly. Sometimes intentionally.
Usually, the gunpowder of your anger sends the words on their way. Uplifting and disparaging words somehow flow from the same mouth. That’s not the Jesus way for those who profess to follow Him (James 3:8–10).
You unthinkingly speak idle words when your brain isn’t in gear. Such words don’t benefit anyone. They’re released like I fired the shotgun.
They’re lightweight and small caliber. But they have penetrating power all out of proportion to their size.
They have no potential to do good. Sometimes they inflict pain. Keeping them to ourselves benefits everyone.
Too much talk can lead to sin (Proverbs 10:19–21). Often, the best thing to say is nothing.
By contrast, God’s words aren’t idle. They are life (Deuteronomy 32:47), chosen carefully and lovingly.
They’re His tools to reprove, correct, protect, build up, teach, and encourage us. “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away” (Hebrews 2:1 NIV).
How have words caused you pain? How have your idle words caused others pain? Read Acts 21.
111 Prescription for a Critical Spirit
Sober self-judgment is difficult. You sometimes bounce between two extremes—pride and self-loathing.
Pride can make you feel like a mixed-breed mutt. It dreams that it’s best in the show at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show.
You can think you’re a loser if you’re not the best at something. Self-loathing, more than pride, is the source of a critical spirit. When you feel bad about yourself, you criticize others. They in turn criticize others in an ever-widening circle. A critical spirit hurts you and others. It doesn’t have to control you.
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4–5 NIV).
You can make every thought obedient to Christ. You do that by roadblocking every critical thought inconsistent with a life shaped by Christ.
That’s very challenging. Criticizing is often harder to uproot than a 50-foot oak.
A critical spirit can possess you. Your mind can spawn critical thoughts like thunderstorms emerge on a hot, humid day.
You can’t stop your sinful nature from manufacturing critical bullets. But you can choose not to fire them.
You must learn to pick off every critical thought as soon as it appears. Send it packing.
Who are you to judge and criticize those for whom God sent his Son to die? You do that because you don’t feel good about yourself and your worth.
So, how do you calm your fears and insecurities? You continually center your life on God and His total sufficiency no matter what.
“In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 56:11 NIV).
“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:2 NIV).
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 NIV).
When you’re content with who you are in Christ, you build others up instead of tearing them down (Ephesians 4:29).
Why is firing critical bullets much worse than critical thoughts?
Read Acts 22.
112 How Many Apples in a Seed?
Most apples have three or four fully developed seeds. You can easily count them. But counting the apples in a seed—that’s another story!
A seed from a dwarf apple tree often produces a full-size tree. When you plant an apple seed, you don’t know what kind of tree will germinate.
If it grows into a full-size tree, you could harvest 30,000 or more apples over its lifetime (and it might outlive you!). Similarly, when you plant seeds in others’ hearts, you don’t know what will germinate.
You can count the seeds you plant through kind words and actions. Perhaps, you donate food to the food bank. Maybe, you teach a class at your church.
You coach a kids’ baseball team. You lead your children in ways that will bless them. Maybe, you send cards to celebrate others’ achievements or comfort them in distress.
You provide transportation for senior citizens. You serve on the governing council of your church.
You can’t count the apples in those seeds. You don’t know what they’ll produce!
Not all seeds germinate. Some might produce dwarf trees with little fruit. Some might produce full-size trees with staggeringly heavy crops year after year.
You can make more of a difference than you imagine if you sow kind words and actions!
“Let’s not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9 NIV).
You will make an unimaginably enormous impact on Earth if you sow kind words and actions daily. Read Acts 23.
113 Nurturing Early Bloomers
A Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association 3A boys’ state championship basketball game was played on March 23, 2019. Chance Westry scored forty points for Trinity High School in a close loss to Lincoln Park.
The big deal—Chance was a first-year student. Most such high school boys play on the junior varsity. Chance starred on the varsity. He was a gifted athlete. He grew up in an environment that nurtured and developed his talent.
Early blooming needs a supportive environment. Daffodils next to our house on its south side blossom early. When the sun shines, the temperature is 20 degrees warmer than on the north side of the house. The house’s heat also warms these flowers.
Similarly, I use a specially designed electric heating pad to speed up the germination of the seeds I plant in our 55-degree basement. It shortens the germinating time for bell peppers from 30 days to 10–14 days.
God designed you to bloom and help others blossom. You’re a ten somewhere! So are others.
To nurture early blooming, help people identify their talent(s). Then help develop it (them) by encouraging irrigation (Ephesians 4:29).
Believing in others releases previously untapped energy. It motivates them to work hard to turn their dreams into reality. Hundreds of hours of practice established the foundation for Chance’s 40-point game.
Spiritually, you nurture early bloomers by showing them how to live in the warmth and light of Jesus (John 8:12). Time in His word, prayer, and Christian fellowship irrigate and fertilize their spiritual growth so they can bear much fruit (John 15:8).
Who has influenced your life by believing in you? Whom can you nurture by believing in them? Read Acts 24.
114 What Are You Sowing?
You’ve heard of black magic and white magic. Have you heard of green magic? I had it in the basement! Really!
Eighty percent of the Green Magic hybrid broccoli seeds I planted, germinated. I transferred them about seven days later from the starter mix into potting soil.
What I sowed in February found its way into our freezer in May, June, and July. Eventually, it became soup in December, January, and February.
What you sow today creates tomorrow’s harvest (Galatians 6:7). It’s a life principle.
Every day you’re preparing for the rest of your life. Saving money during working years prepares you for retirement. Exercising regularly, getting enough rest, and eating healthy foods add up to better health tomorrow.
Treat others well at this year’s holiday gathering. It matters. It makes healthy interactions at next year’s celebration more likely!
If you sow thistle seeds, expecting to reap green beans is unrealistic. The nasty, cutting, demeaning words you speak today strain and fracture relationships.
The conversation that smells like week-old fish carcasses in 90-degree heat, threatens relational bridges. Obscenities, lying, critical, angry, or boasting words burn relational connections as you speak.
Words can both build- and blow-up relationships. It’s your choice. Kind, humble, edifying, and courteous words are always appropriate. “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24 NIV).
What will you do today that will make your whole life better in the future?
Read Acts 25.
115 Ashes to Ashes
They were almost worthless. My brother had about twenty dead white ash trees on his property. He couldn’t sell them for lumber. He offered them as free firewood (ashes to ashes!).
The destroyer was the emerald ash borer. It’s a half inch-long, beautiful green beetle from Asia.
Experts predict they’ll eventually kill all untreated 308 million ash trees in Pennsylvania. They do so by slowly cutting off a tree’s water supply.
That reminds me of another little devastating thing. “Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell” (James 3:5–6 NIV).
Unfiltered, flaming arrow verbal attacks damage you and others. Words spoken in anger and coated with acidic venom brand themselves into minds.
“You Jerk!” or “You’re worthless!” stick to the soul like epoxy. They’re most harmful when significant people in your life launch them. They undermine self-worth and self-confidence.
All of us have both sent and received such unfiltered words. Let’s send them no more!
The Holy Spirit’s filling and control is the best filter available. Controlling your anger prevents the launch of thermonuclear words with life-long fallout. God has provided the spiritual resources you need. The wise use them!
Let today’s words build others up instead of burning them down. Also, a good idea for tomorrow! Read Acts 26.
116 Ten Thousand Miles per Gallon Words
He prayed for me after a conference I attended in 2009. He said God had given him a mental picture of an old-fashioned water pump with a handle.
He saw water flowing from the pump but much more gushing in the future. He didn’t know what that meant.
God showed me within five seconds. It described increased spiritual fruitfulness. At the time, I had no clue that would include internet ministry.
The man’s words left me speechless. Our lives touched for less than 60 seconds. I’d never met him previously. I don’t know his name. I doubt that I’ll see him again on earth. I wouldn’t recognize him if I did.
He left me to pray for someone else. If his wife asked him for highlights of his day, I doubt he mentioned me. Yet, his words have fueled hope and energized me since that day.
He has no idea how much they impacted me. Nor will you know the full impact of your encouraging words this side of eternity.
Encouragement is 10,000 miles-per-gallon fuel that energizes others. A molehill of encouragement can make a mountain of difference. “Therefore encourage each other and build each other up….” (1 Thessalonians 5:11 NIV).
You encourage others with both spoken and written words. William Arthur Ward wrote, “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I won’t forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.”1
What words of encouragement made all the difference to you? How can you pass the baton of encouragement on to others?
Read Acts 27.
117 Hurt to Help
God occasionally wraps His best gifts with the plain brown paper of pain. Those gifts seem cruel and heartless when you receive them.
Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? This is so unfair! Some happen because God loves you too much to let you stay just as you are.
From 2008–2018, I had two painful experiences. I didn’t anticipate either one.
The first was as emotionally agonizing as my mother’s unexpected death when I was seven. In such situations, it’s easy to conclude God either isn’t in control or doesn’t care a lick about me.
Neither is correct. I’m not yet the person God has envisioned. His whittling and sandpapering away that which is not Christlike in me hurts.
“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11 NIV).
Young children would be content to live on candy. They don’t know what they need to be healthy.
You can’t foresee the spiritual development required to become all God designed you to be. When you look in the mirror, you’re blind to your spiritual pimples and moles.
Like chemo and radiation therapy, God’s painful gifts are a radical treatment for your malignant self-centeredness (2 Corinthians 3:18). Greater compassion for others has emerged in the wake of my pain, a different ministry direction, and increased spiritual fruitfulness.
Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8). Before you share His glory, you share His sufferings (Romans 8:17).
We can’t compare those sufferings to the glory that God will reveal in us (Romans 8:18). Your pain helps others experience that same glory.
How does the truth of God allowing us to hurt to help others run against the current of worldly values? Read Acts 28.
118 Why Bad Things Happen to Good People
Life-shattering events eventually strike you like lightning bolts from a cobalt blue sky. There’s no easy explanation.
On the one hand, you have the destructiveness of the world system, human sinfulness, and Satan. On the other hand, God is in control and works all things for good (Romans 8:28).
In the debris-choked wake of evil, it’s more profitable to consider how to respond than why this awful thing happened.
You must keep trusting God’s goodness, obey Him, and imitate Him by doing good yourself. Jesus summed it up as loving God with all your being and loving your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37–39).
The Lord alone is good in all His ways (1 Chronicles 16:34, Matthew 19:17). His will is good and perfect (Romans 12:2).
Because of your sinful nature, you’re not inherently good (Romans 3:12, 7:18). Because of God’s goodness, somehow, even pain level 10 circumstances will result in good for you and others. It must frustrate the enemy!
I hate suffering, but it has made me a more compassionate person. It has led me to examine myself and refocus on seeking God and doing good (Psalm 34:14, Amos 5:14).
God has disciplined me for my good so I can share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:10). Suffering taught even Jesus to obey God (Hebrews 5:8).
Joseph explained his suffering as his brothers intending to harm him, but God intends it for good…the saving of many lives (Genesis 50:20). Saving lives and your holiness are more important to God than your earthly comfort. Jesus endured unimaginable pain to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18).
Your suffering always has a purpose. God allows the world system, sinful people, and the devil to inflict suffering which He reshapes for good.
How have painful things that have happened to you made you a better person?
Read Romans 1.
119 Why God Messes Up Your Plans
Faith is not believing something you know isn’t true. It’s not thinking God will instantly deliver you from every briar patch, pothole, and sickness when you cry out to Him in prayer.
Believing something doesn’t make it true. If the object of your faith isn’t trustworthy, you’re headed for disappointment.
Biblical faith acts on God’s character and promises. “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6 NIV).
Jesus’ goal was to develop faith in His followers. After He’d calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee, He asked His disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40 NIV). How often does fear control you because you don’t trust the God in charge?
God is at work developing faith in you. It seems the farther along the path of faith I travel, the less likely God is to give me the instant answers to the prayer of my early Christian experience.
He’s conforming you to the image of His Son—a person with persevering faith despite circumstances that suggest faith is foolish. Mother Teresa felt God was distant or hiding most of her life. Yet she persevered. When circumstances go south, God wants you to trust Him.
My daughter developed an autoimmune disease in 2002 when she was a high school senior. She still has a constellation of ailments. She experiences pain constantly. This isn’t what we’d planned for her at all. But God wants us to trust Him.
Life often messes up your plans. Remember that the One in charge knows what He’s doing.
“Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:7–9 NIV).
God specializes in making roses grow from manure piles of messed up plans and messed up people. Instead of becoming bitter, trust Him to work in your briar patches, potholes, and sicknesses. Thank Him for the unexpected blessings yet ahead.
For what messed up plans in your life does God want you to trust Him?
Read Romans 2.