1 Timothy 1:14
I have had this morning a verse of scripture on my mind that has always been a blessing to me personally. It is one that Paul wrote to young Timothy in his first letter to him and is found in 1 Timothy 1:14 where he says, And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. In one of my devotionals today it was talking about grace and how important it is to our lives. That’s what led me to think about this verse once again. Sometimes I think we forget just how blessed we are to be partakers of God’s amazing gift of grace.
Let me begin by just thinking about what grace is all about. I’m not talking about what we say just before we eat one of our meals. I’m talking about the grace of God toward us. The word grace is a word that, according to the dictionary, means a disposition to be generous or to show mercy. It goes on to define it as divine favor bestowed freely on people. Then one more says a favor rendered by one who need not do so. Grace then is God’s generous favor freely given toward us when He didn’t have to do so. That is what makes grace so amazing.
There isn’t a single one of us that deserves God’s grace. There isn’t a single one of us that deserves one milli-second of His favor. There isn’t a single one of us that deserves one breath of celestial air. There isn’t a single one of us that deserves one glimpse of heaven’s glory. But God in His amazing grace has chosen to redeem sinners and gives us the privilege to experience the fullness of His glory and His heaven for all of eternity. Can you imagine that? I can’t. I can’t imagine God, who created the universe and the world on we live, caring enough about someone like me to redeem me and allow me to enjoy His presence forever.
But to go back to the verse a moment, Paul says that God’s grace was exceeding abundant. Paul seems to be saying that God’s grace was superabounding for salvation and then still for everything else he would need afterwards. In other words, God’s grace is sufficient for saving us but then also for anything and everything else we will ever need from now until we reach home. Whatever you are struggling with in life, God has ample grace to meet that need and then much more on top of that.
We will never exhaust God’s grace. Like the widow of Zarephath in the days of Elijah, we can just daily dip into God’s barrel of grace. There will never be a time when we dip into His barrel that we will find it empty. He always has grace to meet our need. Are you needing His grace today for some situation? He has an exceeding abundant supply. Just look to Him and let Him fill your heart with His amazing grace.
