Overflowing grace

When the Lord gives us the breakthough, it will be beyond our imaginations and expectations. For the Lord proves His love for us which surpasses our imaginations. We do not receive our blessings because of our goodness or righteousness. But purely because of His grace. As Rev. Selwyn Hughes says, "God's resources infinitely exceed our requirements".

It is true that our Lord is more than enough for us and that is why He is called the El Shaddai which translates, 'The Lord Almighty'. In other words the Lord who is 'The enough'.

2 Corinthians 9:8 (New International Version)
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need...

God will meet all our needs. He is able...only we need to trust and wait for His grace to work in our lives...

Approching with confidence

While waiting for answers, it is natural to go weary when nothing turns our way. But we should not fall into a gloom, for gloom can take us down the road to depression. So it is better that we hold on to God and His Word, for through that our faith is built. The way we handle our feelings, direct our attitudes and speech shows our faith.

Whatever be our circumstances, God is in control and there is a wonderful exhortation in God's Word...

Hebrews 4:16 (New International Version)
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

We can approach God with confidence believing that grace will be given to meet our timely need. So God has promised to meet our need and He knows the time. We get worried because we don't know the time but His time will not be beyond...It will not surpass the crucial time for our need to be met. It will be just in time and we can applaud that it was in perfect timing...

As grace operates

When we expect God to give us a breakthrough, then we are to wait and not hurry up to work out things by our own strength and intelligence. It is not wrong to take efforts or try... but we at the same time need to wait and see to receive the best from the Lord. We should not take short cuts to reach our goals or compromise with small things. We are to do our part and leave God to do His part.

Deuteronomy 3:24 (New International Version)

"O Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand...

The grace of God will operate in our lives as we wait for Him and we will receive the best from His hand. We will be able to see the strong hand and the greatness of our Lord when we wait in faith.

From His hands...

During the times of expectation for some kind of breakthrough in our life, we may think or expect that it may come through some person or source. And when that doesn't happen we easily get disappointed and discouraged in life. That is why we always need to set our focus and eyes on the Lord. We will not know from which source our provision or breakthrough is going to come. But our Lord knows it all, for He has perfectly planned every detail of our life.

We should be able to say like the Psalmist,

Psalm 54:4 (New International Version)
Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.

Our help is from the Lord. Our provision and breakthrough is from Him.

Psalm 145:15-16 (New International Version)
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

When the Lord does this for every creation of His, how much more to those who love Him and look to Him. Whatever be our need He will surely meet.

Let us say with faith and affirmation,
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want (Ps 23:1)

I can through Him...

We take seamless efforts to do our best at work, home, in handling problems and dealing with issues or people. But fail many times because things do not turn as expected all the time. Either there are problems with people or the system or in the way things are handled by the people. For this we need the grace of God so that the efforts taken doesn't go the drain.

Apostle Paul said,
Philippians 4:13 (New International Version)
I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

This strength which Paul claims to have is the power of Christ which is sufficient enough for him to carry on his work and face life's challenges. There is no insufficiency in him which Christ cannot meet.

Similarly we can do all things through Christ enabled power in us that comes by grace. Hence we can find our sufficiency in Him alone. Amen.

Striving forward

Many things we would have planned and desired to execute last year, but due to some reasons it wouldn't have turned out as expected. At the same time we could also recollect some aspects in us which might have been undesirable such as unwise spending, or being sluggish or slowing down in faith or even ill tempered...These things we would now like to change, so that we could become better and also be productive in our life.

The first step to carry out this is to forget the unaccomplished and press ahead with a new hope and determination. Apostle Paul teaches us this secret which we find in the book of Philippians.

Philippians 3:13 (New International Version)

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead...

We as human beings have our shortcomings and weaknesses, but we should not allow them to stop us or take control over us. If we can only learn to strive ahead by seeking the strength and the grace from the Lord, then we can surely be over comers rather than quitters.

Our Personal Promise

As we enter New Year with all joy and anticipation, our Lord will give us a promise for the year which is very unique to each one of us. And it is this promise that will carry us through as we hold on to God and His Word.

Genesis 28:15 (New International Version)
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go... I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

This is a promise that the Lord God gave Abraham and this promise is for each one of us too. For the Word of God says that all the blessings and promises given to Abraham also belongs to those who have faith in Christ.

Romans 4:16 (New King James Version)
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

So let us seek God diligently for our personal promise for this year and claim it so that it will be fulfilled in due time.