New Morning Mercies #211

Fish were designed to swim, the sun to shine, and you to worship God. Grace welcomes you back to what you were designed for—worship.

If someone were to ask you what the ultimate, final goal of God’s grace is, what would you answer? What is God’s grace working to accomplish? God’s grace can make you more financially wise. God’s grace can make you a better citizen and neighbor. God’s grace can cause you to be more responsible with the use of your body and more sexually pure. God’s grace can help you to make better decisions in life. God’s grace can assist you to communicate in a way that is less selfish and more loving toward others. God’s grace can help you to think more about the future and rescue you from living just for the here and now. God’s grace can make you more thankful and a better steward of what you have been given. God’s grace can cause you to be a wiser and more patient parent. God’s grace can help you to forge a healthier marriage. God’s grace can enable you to be more honest with yourself and more forgiving in your dealings with others. God’s grace can make you less anxious and more courageous. God’s grace can give you a reason to get up in the morning even when things aren’t going well. God’s grace can pilot you through disappointment and give you joy even when you’re suffering. God’s grace can enable you to remember what is worth remembering and to put away what you need to forget. God’s grace can make you more compassionate and less bitter. God’s grace can help you to know you are loved even when you’re alone and to know you have strength even when you are weak. All of these things are the beautiful harvest of grace. All of these are things for which we should be eternally thankful. But none of these good gifts is the ultimate goal of God’s grace. Focus on the following words from Romans 1:18–23:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Here is the bottom line: sin kidnapped our worship, and grace works to restore it to its rightful owner—God. It is only when God is in his rightful place in our hearts that everything else is in its appropriate place in our lives, and only powerful grace can accomplish this.

For further study and encouragement: Deuteronomy 10:12–22