Living on the mission field I am continually and constantly reminded of the faithfulness of our God. These past 13 years we have had many occasions where only our faith in one greater than us took us to the next day.
Living for God is a day by day experience. The Word of God says that his mercies are new every morning. Thank God for his mercy, because where would any of us be without it.
Daily challenges and opportunities has brought me to a place of maturity where I recognize I need his mercy. But I don't want to live in his mercy I want to live, in his grace.
Many years ago when having a difficult time, and it seemed to be a great mountain in our way. Father directed me to the fourth chapter of the book of Zechariah. As I began to read and meditate upon this word Father gave me a revelation about the meaning of grace.
Grace is like a two-sided coin, the one side of the coin is the one most familiar with people. I had been educated and had taught others. What I believed was the only meaning of the word grace.
Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Father was preparing to show me the other side of the coin. He brought my attention to the fact that there were two graces spoken about in these verses of Zechariah chapter 4. He said, just shout grace, grace to the mountain It would be removed. So I wanted to stand upon the word and decided to try it. I shouted grace grace, and waited, but my mountain never moved. I thought maybe, I did not shout loud enough so the next time I shouted even louder. I waited and looked again at the mountain remained. So then I thought well maybe I'm not being humble enough. So I began to cry oh God grace grace, again the mountain did not move. So I promptly begin to tell Father that his word did not work. All during this time, God had not spoken one word to me.
Then all of a sudden I heard him say to me. You do not understand what grace means. I almost became indignant, because I had been taught and had taught others what the word grace meant. Father was getting ready to turn the coin over and teach me about the other side of what grace means.
He said you noticed, there is not one grace or several graces, but only two. The first grace speaks of my abilities and the second grace are the abilities that I have given you. When your ability is coupled together with my ability nothing is impossible.
All of a sudden, I remembered the words of Paul when he spoke. I am what I am by the grace of God. Right after this experence, I did an intensive study on what this side of the coin means.
In Acts chapter 4 it says that great grace was upon them meaning to say they were given great abilities by the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out their destiny that had been given to them by God. I believe that you and I also have a destiny in God. Every day I need to remind myself about the abilities that God has given to me. I never doubt his abilities I know what he is able to do. My faith has to be reminded me every day that I am what I am by the grace of God.
