Forfeiting Grace
- Grace is unmerited. God’s grace defined is giving us what we don’t deserve. We don’t deserve forgiveness. We get it. We don’t deserve material possessions. We receive much. We don’t deserve talents or gifts. We use them freely. We don’t deserve favor from Him. He honors us. We dishonor him. We forfeit God’s grace by not excepting it, by refusing to live in it. By returning to the old….by reminding him of how bad we are…..by ignoring all that He has done for us….He never forfeits HIS Grace…..We forfeit his grace. We shove it back in his face….we either don’t acknowledge it or we abuse it by not keeping our pride in check and wanting more and more our own way. We forfeit by staking claim over our blessings like we have done something that needs to be recognized and yet we wouldn’t even be where we are if it hadn’t been for grace. We take matters in our own hands and if left there we began to believe our own press. We forget He delivered us, fed us, gave us water, clothed us. We begin to think like spiritually spoiled children and even can demand that He needs to take care of us as He has done before. We are called to be imitators of the One who has saved us. In our theme we see that Paul said, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ ( I Cor. 11:1) In reality, I believe we see many replications or imitators in the “celebrities” of the Christian world. Leaders, replicating little men and women of themselves. It is a fine line. It is a dangerous place and after repeated times of our forfeiting the grace He so lavishes upon He requires a reckoning. Depending on where we are in the body – the consequences, the fall-out ….could be far reaching.
Truth: Living in the glass house will require you and I to live in an awareness that we could be forfeiting God’s grace.
Forfeiting defined as a verb is to lose or be deprived of (property or a right or privilege) as a penalty for wrongdoing.
Grace defined is God’s unmerited favor toward humanity and especially his people, realized through the covenant and fulfilled through Jesus Christ.
Mercy defined is a divine quality by which God faithfully keeps his promises and maintains his covenant relationship with his chosen people despite their unworthiness and unfaithfulness.
Imitate defined is to mimic; to do what is seen to be done by another; sometimes it approximates
If we are going to effectively and authentically live out replicating lives then we must heed the warnings of Paul as written in I Corinthians 9 -11:1 and then from Revelation 2:1-7 as the writer speaks plainly to the church in Ephesus.
- Remember… (I Cor. 10, Revelation 2:2-4)
- as leaders we must regularly recall where we were when He chose us.
- the state of humility that we had at the moment and during the first days.
- our awe of the calling and our surrender to it.
- the emotions of the new. Your passion for the high call.
- the ultimate dependence we had on Him.
- your willingness to sacrifice.
- the feelings of pleasure knowing He loved you and you were serving well
- we have a great enemy and he wants to destroy us – you are in a war.
- Repent… (I Cor.10:6-22, Revelation 2:5)
- from idols – anything that has exalted itself before your relationship with God
- Success – God’s versus Man’s
- Model of the church today – comparison, competition, celebrity status
- Pride
- Woundedness
- Our giftedness
- Secret Sins – resulting in guilt & shame
- of unforgiveness
- anger
- sexual Sins
- and identify any lies you have believed as truth
- and receive healing from past hurts
- of leaving our first love
- Reject & Refocus (I Cor. 9)
- the lies of the enemy and replace the lie with truth of God’s Word
- the way the world defines success in ministry
- man’s approval over God’s approval
- your not qualified or worth it all
- Return…..
- to our first love
- and remember who called us
- when tempted, look for the way of escape and put on the whole armor of God
- whatever we do – DO for the glory of the Lord
- Receive
- His mercy
- and imitate the One full of grace and mercy!
Grace Quotes
“Grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve. Mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve!” – Anonymous
“Our huffing and puffing to impress God, our scrambling for brownie points, our thrashing about trying to fix ourselves while hiding our pettiness and wallowing in guilt are nauseating to God and are a flat out denial of the gospel of grace.” Brennan Manning
Grace is but glory begun, and glory is but grace perfected.” Jonathan Edwards
“And you know, when you’ve experienced grace and you feel like you’ve been forgiven, you’re a lot more forgiving of other people. You’re a lot more gracious to others.” Rick Warren
“One thing is sure…this is us, except by the grace of God. This is us, if we’re not careful. This is some of us if we keep going the way we’re going. To finish well, we will need to fight against the gravitational pull, and beat our bodies into submission!” Shawn Lovejoy – excerpt from blog post, The Pressure of the Pastorate, July 17th, 2016
Ladies, we are walking in a time where we need to be mindful of where we forfeit the grace given us everyday! The great privilege of being in the ministry life is one of great responsibility! Let’s evaluate before the new year! Let’s be grateful for where we have been placed and realize that HE has called us to a unique opportunity of leadership and we get to serve the Creator of the universe!
Happy Thanksgiving! If you have been called to serve as a Ministry Wife do NOT stoop to be a queen!!
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Love you! Diane
