2015 July Fast Devotional

Theme: THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF HIS GRACE

DAY 29, Read Titus 2:11-15

 

BE STRONG IN HIS GRACE

 

Key text: “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).

 

Every father would desire to see his son grow up very strong physically and to be healthy. Growing up strong in the Lord comes through a process and in stages. Rev. N. Marshall says, “As grace is the seed of glory, that seed must rise by gradual advances to its full maturity.” Today, we shall look into the commentaries written by others about how we can grow in the grace of the Lord. Rev. H. M. Villiers, identifies five ways we can grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Read his comments below:

“THE MEANS OF GROWING IN GRACE.

1. Faith, to be strong, must be exercised. Commit your ways to God. Trust Him. Your faith will increase.
2. Another means which may be suggested is prayer. If you will only wrestle with God in prayer as Jacob did, you will succeed.
3. I may specify Scriptural reading.
4. A further and most important means for advancing in our heavenward journey is meditation upon the promises of God.
5. I will only mention one other means of growth in grace, self-examination. Prevention is better than cure; when you know your deficiencies, then you may guard against them; thus mischief may be kept away.”

Charles G. Finney, the revivalist and great evangelist  also makes a lengthy contribution of how to grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Find his comments below:

“SOMETHINGS THAT ARE EVIDENCES OF A GROWTH IN GRACE.

1. When an individual finds he has more singleness of heart, and more purity of motive in his conduct, it is evidence that he is growing in grace.
2. An individual who grows in grace is more and more actuated by principle, and less and less by emotion or feeling. By principle, in contradistinction from feeling or emotion, I mean a controlling determination in the mind to do right.
3. Another important evidence of growth in grace is more love to God. By this I do not mean that there will be in all cases a conscious increase of emotions of love to God, but that there will be a strengthening of real attachment to God’s character and government. And this increased attachment will evince itself in a growing veneration for all the institutions of religion, and for all the commands of God.
4. Another evidence of growth in grace is when a person increases in love to men as well as love to God.
5. Those who grow in grace feel more and more self-loathing. This is the natural result of having a clear view of God. It makes a person sink down in self-abasement.
6. An increased abhorrence of sin is another mark of growth in grace. When a person feels, day by day, less and less disposed to compromise with any sin, in himself, or in others, it is a sign that he is growing in grace.
7. He who grows in grace has less relish for the world. He has less and less desire for its wealth, its honours, its pleasures.
8. Increasing delight in the fellowship of the saints is another evidence of growth in grace.
9. He who grows in grace finds it more and more easy to exercise a forgiving spirit, and to pray for his enemies.
10. Growing more charitable is an evidence of growth in grace. But he is mere ready to ascribe a person’s apparently wrong conduct to mistake, or misapprehension, or some other cause, than to direct evil intention.
11. Having less and less anxiety about worldly things is an evidence of growth in grace.
12. Becoming more ready to bestow property is a sign of growth in grace.
13. He feels less and less as if he had any separate interest. It is a great thing, in regard to growth in grace, to feel that all you have is Christ’s, and that you have absolutely no separate interest in living, or in dying, or in holding property, or children, or character.
14. It is an evidence of growth in grace when a person becomes more willing to confess faults to men.
15. Growing in grace raises a person more and more above the world. The growing saint regards less and less either the good or ill opinions of men. He feels that it is of little importance, only as it may affect his usefulness.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for your command to me to grow in the grace and knowledge of God.