“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us -- whatever we ask -- we know that we have what we asked of him. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true -- even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.,” [1 John 5:13-21]
During the school year, my sons will often lament that they don’t see me enough throughout the week. I will often leave to the sound of, “Dad, when will you be home tonight?” When the answer is often, “After you’re in bed…” I almost always hear the same response: “Awwwwwwww.” But when I hear and feel their disappointment, I remind them, “Remember, we have Saturday.” And then the comeback is always, “And what will we do together on Saturday!?” We always have Saturday. There’s a lot of truth to that. Many have to work on Saturdays, and sometimes there are events that pop up, but Saturday, as it was originally designed, is the Sabbath –the seventh day.
Jesus reminds us that He’s the Lord of the Sabbath. Because the Sabbath is more than a day of rest from work; it’s that day that God rested from His own creation. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath, which means that our true rest from sin, and God’s rest from sin come as a result of what Jesus has done.
We now live in the day of grace, when our sins don’t condemn us if we remain in Jesus, our Sabbath Rest. He is the One who says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Jesus gave us His Spirit to remain with us until His Return. The Spirit of God is a guarantee and a reminder that we belong to God, but He is also the Giver of grace. We cannot remain in Jesus with the Spirit living in us and continue to sin; we loathe the idea of sin because sin is what destroyed our relationship with God.
Grace inspires us to gratitude and humility –we are not restored because of our greatness or personal religion –we are alive because Jesus conquered death. We become ministers of God’s reconciliation. In other words, we hunger for the lost to know God’s grace. We are ever watchful of our brothers and sisters that they don’t become overwhelmed by sin and fall into a trap of the devil. Our church is a house of grace, anticipating the gracious hand of God to work His will in the lives of many. We pray, knowing that when we pray for God’s will, the guaranteed result is the reconciliation of sinners with the Lover of their souls.
Remember, there’s always Saturday. There is always rest for the Christian, no matter how wayward or “far gone” you might think you are. Grace is powerful and is the very power of heaven that enables us to overcome the world and live by what pleases God. So let’s pray for more grace, that heaven might flood our lives and we, God’s Living Temple, might pour some grace into some desperate and weary lives. Let’s pray that we as the Body of Christ would become so filled with God’s grace that we’re contagious with the Love of God. Pray for an overwhelming grace.
Pray with confidence,
George