Deaf Devotion 9/4/2009

“Timothy, my dear son, be strong in the grace that God gives you in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2:1 NLT)

Timothy was not Paul’s son in the physical sense. Timothy was Paul’s spiritual son in the sense that it was under Paul’s ministry that Timothy accepted Jesus Christ as Savior. Timothy had become a child of God the same as us. He was born into God’s family by means of his faith in Jesus Christ. “For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.” (1 Peter 1:23 NLT)

Paul writes an awesome phrase: “be strong in grace.” If we think we can focus and go out and live the Christian life on our own, we will be disappointed. If we feel that if we follow a few little rules or some clever tricks to become a mature Christian, then we have fallen into the trap of focusing on the rules more than on God. Paul gives no rules, and the Word of God has no rules to tell us exactly how we are to live a Christian life.

We are saved by grace, and now we are to live by the grace of God and become strong in that grace.

When we say that we must do this or that or follow some tradition or rules to think we are “better” or more “mature” in our faith, we show how little we understand about God’s grace. When we let rules and restrictions take over our worship of God, we limit God and restrict Him to working within a limited space and time. God works His way and in His time.

But Paul said, “Be strong in the grace that is In Christ Jesus.” How many of us were born “saved?” The answer is none. We are saved by God’s grace through faith. We have no merit of our own. We are saved by grace. We stand firm in the free gift of God’s grace. And we walk in the light of God’s grace. So if we are to be strong in the grace of Christ, and we are to GROW in the grace of Christ, WE must BE and DO and GROW and LIVE in the Grace of Christ. WE must reflect what Christ did for us.