The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"This Grace Wherein We Stand"
Peace with God makes available access to God.
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2).
Faith in the Lord Jesus spiritually births the believer into family relationship with God (John 1:12). We become His sons and daughters, and thus beckoned to living fellowship with our Heavenly Father. Moreover, the Holy Spirit works within our hearts to draw us to communion with God (Philippians 2:13). The door is open, the throne of grace available, and the heart of God desirous of fellowship with our hearts. "The prayer of the upright is His delight" (Proverbs 15:8).
I made your heart to know My heart,
I made your spirit to journey far
into the glories of the light
that glimmer so brightly
in the face of Christ.
In the light of all that God has done and is doing to make fellowship with Him possible and actual, we also play a vital role of participation. We must respond. We must come. We must seek. We must avail ourselves of the access made possible by the Lord Jesus. "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you" (James 4:8). David realized this, and responded accordingly:
"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Psalm 27:8).
Reciprocity characterizes all true relationship. God would find our fellowship with Him meaningless if He merely programmed us to pray. Certainly, He works in us to motivate, lead, and enable our communion with Him. We would have no interest in prayer otherwise. However, He does not drag us to the throne. We come freely, or we do not come at all. "But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy, and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple" (Psalm 5:7).
Prayer involves a trusting and willed response to God's proactive and willed working in the believer's heart. He made access to Himself, at the highest cost to Himself. "Now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13). He gave us His Spirit when we believed, His active Holy Spirit who ever moves upon the face of our hearts, even as He moved upon the waters in creation. His Word illuminates the ways and means of prayer, including the subject matter of prayer, motivation to pray, and the promise of power to commune with God. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6). Fellow believers provide example, encouragement, and exhortation regarding communion with God through preaching, teaching, example, and the fellowship of the saints for motivation to pray.
In a sense, the ball of prayer lies in our court. The gift has been given. Access to God lies ever before believers. The strength teems within us, through the guidance and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. All that is left is that we respond. All that is left is to see the necessity of our response, and to pray in the confidence of our Lord's presence, leading, and enabling. All that is left is that we must believe we can pray, we must pray, and we will pray as we look unto our Heavenly Father in the light of His looking upon us. No greater gift could our Lord give us, the gift of Himself, and access into "this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
"In Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore."
(Psalm 16:11)
Weekly Memory Verse
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."
(I John 4:9)
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