MESSAGE – 24th May 2020

Growing in Grace

2 Peter 3:18

Bishop O. C. Dominic

Take note of the following definitions about grace:

  • Grace is the power that has been given to us to enable us please God.
  • Grace gives us the ability to live extraordinarily.
  • Grace is an encouragement in an unusual setting.
  • Grace is God’s empowerment for living.
  • We need grace because we are mere flesh subject to limitations.

The following questions are pertinent –

  1. How am I going to grow in grace?
  2. Can I fall from grace?
  3. How can I continue in the grace that I have been given?

A Christian should not go down in the grace of God. He should continually grow in grace. You can both grow in grace or fall from grace. Why do Christians fall from grace or “backslide”? Galatians 5:4. When your grace is finished, both you and those around you will notice it because you will no longer be able to do things that please God.

Signs of falling from grace include:

  1. Giving up. 1 Kings 19:14-18. Like Elijah, when you lose your grace, discouragement and complaint sets in. You feel like you are the only one left doing what you are doing. There is a reason God kept you where you are/saved you. Similarly nearly lost his grace. Jeremiah 20:7-9. Don’t give up in the task God has given you, even if it is not popular. Don’t allow your grace to fall. Job 3:3.
  2. Stoppage of doing good.
  3. Weakness in fulfilling your ministry or doing what God asked you to do. When you don’t have grace to do something any longer, to do that thing will be so difficult for you. What is your grace? Are you still doing it? If you are no longer doing it, you have backslidden.
  4. Comparison. You will begin to compare yourself with another person when your grace is finished. 2 Corinthians 10:12. It’s wrong to compare yourself with others. What you have to do is ask God for more grace.
  5. Complaining. Complaints are an evidence of a fall from grace. They come when there is no more grace.
  6. Murmuring. This was what made Moses not to see the Promised Land as he gave vent to the murmuring of the Israelites. Murmuring can lead you to hell.
  7. Finding faults. When a child of God starts finding faults and complaining, his grace is finished.

How do you respond when you face a crisis? Your response to conflict or disappointment shows your level of grace. Is your faith growing down because of delay in God’s fulfillment of His promises? Job 19:1-7. Your level of grace is known when you face huge crisis. That is when the evidence of your being a child of God is manifested.

May you always abide in the grace of God. Amen!