Positioned For Grace

Positioned for Grace

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. Ephesians 2:8-9

WE HAVE ENTERED INTO A KINGDOM OF GRACE. Those of us who have been immersed in the gospel of grace alone through faith alone are trained well in the idea that we bring nothing to the table in God’s Kingdom. We can’t earn our salvation or answers to prayer. We can’t bargain with God, merit his favor, or impress him with works. Our salvation, sanctification, fruitfulness in ministry, and answers to prayer are all given through his grace, and we dare not mix any self-effort into them.

That doctrine, thoroughly supported by Scripture, has blinded us to some other considerations, however. We’ve become so resistant to bargaining with God or trying to earn his favor that we’ve forgotten the importance of positioning ourselves to receive what he wants to give. It’s true that we can’t earn answers to our prayers, but our maturity is not a matter of earning. We don’t entrust our children with an inheritance when they are spendthrifts; we don’t give them the family business when they have no business sense; and we don’t hand over the car keys when they haven’t learned how to drive or demonstrated any sense of responsibility. All of these could be gifts of pure grace that no child could merit, but he or she does need to become mature enough to be able to handle them. So we wait. We help them grow. We withhold our gifts until the moment those gifts will bless them instead of ruining them. We try to be wise in how we give our gifts of grace.

God is infinitely wise, so he often withholds his answers to our prayers until we are ready for them—by his definition of ready. In the meantime, position yourself well. Grow into the size of your desires while you are waiting for them to be fulfilled. Don’t try to earn them, but do prepare yourself to handle them. Grace pours into your life according to your capacity to carry it.

Prayer is the means by which we obtain all the graces that rain down upon us from the divine fountain of goodness and love.