A friend of mine once argued that there is no need of spending much time in the Church and praying for long hours. I tried to convince him how one needs to spend quality time with God in order to, grow gracefully and be fruitful in the knowledge of God. One needs a solid foundation in Christ so as to withstand the storm of life in time of adversity. He said he never spent twenty five percent of the time some people spent with God and God has been blessing him tremendously. Later in life he had some challenges and because he had no solid foundation in Christ he was preyed upon by false prophets as he moved from one Church to The other in search of deliverance that God has made available to him through His grace that my friend did not understand. He paid huge sum of money for what God has made available without costing a cent.
To some extent my friend is right for laying claim to being blessed by God without spending much time in His presence. In fact it is not how much time you read the Bible, not how much time you pray or receive the Holy Communion that gives you a right standing with God. God’s grace is the expression of His love to mankind in a way that can make us appreciate the fact that we are getting what we do not deserve and consequently be motivated to love Him and be obedient to Him. It does not require our efforts, it is the finished work of Christ on the Cross.
But the grace of God has been grossly abused and misunderstood because it is not applied in line with the world system. World system attaches reward to good performance, in the sense that there is no way a student with poor grade in the examination can be promoted but God’s grace does not consider our efforts, it’s purely God’s prerogative. That is why my friend can claim that he is blessed by God much more than people who spend much more quiet time with God.
God’s blessings we receive daily is not through any good deeds of ours but through His benevolence of grace, lest we should go ahead boasting that our good works have earned us God’s favour. For by grace we are saved. But then, grace is not a license to treat sin with kid- gloves. There are still consequences for disobedience. Whereas the grace of God that appeared unto mankind firstly saved us, thereafter prepared us to live soberly and righteously trusting God in all we say say or do Titus 2:11-14. Christlikeness is to be seen in us and this is the only way we can attract unbelievers to the salvation of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us pray that God will continue to help us in this our earthly journey that our inner eyes will be opened to the things of God so that we will not take God’s grace for granted. May God fill our hearts with His love and favour and bless us continually with His presence in our lives. Amen. Have a blessed week ahead.