Lessons From Egypt

There was one word I couldn’t get away from while in Egypt. Every conversation I had, every class I taught, in my private prayer and study time it kept popping up. Grace. 

It’s an all-encompassing concept that can be applied to every situation in seemingly endless ways - there’s saving grace, grace to stand, grace to pursue God’s plan, grace to be where God has called us to be, on and on. 

Yet for all this, it’s boiled down to a very simple concept. It’s God giving us His ability, taking us beyond our ability. 

Saving grace - God giving us His righteousness despite our nature. Grace to stand - God giving us His ability to withstand all the enemy’s tactics despite our weakness. Grace to pursue His plan - God giving us His ability to walk in the steps He’s prepared for us, despite our tendency to wander off. 

You get the picture. 

Grace is a completely undeserved, un-earned gift, given without any strings attached. We can chose to walk according to it, or not. We can chose to lean into it, or not. It’s there for us if we chose to partake. 

We partake of this gift by faith. By trusting God enough to know it’s there if He says it is… and He does. 

“Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ…” Romans 1:5

We’ve been given grace - God’s divine ability unattached to our own ability - to fulfill our call. To be obedient to Him. 

We could summarize Romans 1:5 by saying through Him, we have received our mission and our help. 

Grace to fulfill the great commission. 

We have to be willing to step out beyond ourselves. To step out in a place where we’re not necessarily comfortable, be it in our local grocery store checkout line or in an unfamiliar market in a third world country. It is necessary for us to step out of our comfort zone in order to fulfill our commission. 

What happens when we do this, is we begin to realize that there’s something that takes over when we’re willing to drop our ego and our pride. That something is grace - God’s ability to do whatever it is we are doing. 

When we live in an attitude of humility, which is simply a focus on God not on ourselves, we can use this grace in every situation. 

God is not a stingy giver, and He has willingly equipped us with a measure of grace that is enough for everything we do. I want His ability operating in my life at all times! Whether I’m ministering at the pulpit, introducing myself to new friends, at my workplace, exercising, sleeping or eating! We need to realize that He’s with us in all those things, and we don’t have to live life in our own strength. 

Again, it takes a willingness to lay our lives down at His feet. To ask Him “what do you want of me today”. It takes a decidedness not to trust in ourselves or our own ability, but to have faith - to trust in His ability - His grace - for everything we do. This is when we find ourselves living in a place of victory. He’s won our victory for us - through His nature not ours. 

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Romans 12:1-2 Message Version

I encourage you to make time to study further this gift that has been given to us… God’s grace. 

Romans 12:3-8

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

2 Corinthians 1:12

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Ephesians 2:8-9