We have talked about surrender and forgiveness as it pertains to grace. I think that these are primarily personal aspects of grace and how we interact with God. I think that they are the foundation for the Christian life and they are a lifetime endeavor to work out as we have been talking about. It is primary for us to incorporate them into our lives for healthy Christian living so that we get the promises of God, peace and joy. When we have that we can withstand the pressures and circumstances of this world. I think that as we get a deeper understanding and implementation of grace in our personal lives we then have the opportunity to take that grace and practically use it to impact our world for the kingdom. The aspect of grace that I want to talk about today is service. I think that many people believe this to be a natural outpouring and activity of our Christian faith, but I really believe that while service is the responsibility of all Christians there is a deeper and higher level that God wants us all to aspire to and that can only happen with grace and an advanced level of intimacy with God.

I believe that God has an individual calling on each of our lives and I believe it to be our responsibility to get to that place where God can use us for His glory. Higher purpose requires deeper intimacy and that only occurs with more grace and constant filling of the Holy Spirit. It’s kind of an exclusive club that is available to all of us, but to get there we have to be totally dedicated to the cause. This is why surrender and forgiveness become prerequisites for service. We deepen all aspects of grace in ourselves as we draw closer to Him and then the fruit becomes evident and we fulfill the calling for our lives. I believe that there is that thing or things that God wants us to individually accomplish with Him. Not that God needs us because He doesn’t. I was thinking about something the other day and it’s not something that I have thought about for the first time, but I sometimes have those moments when God blows my mind as I get a fresh understanding of something that I think I know. I was thinking about how the God of the universe was before creation. In total harmony and fellowship within the trinity, and God, because of His nature, felt compelled to create human beings because of one and only one reason. God is love and while totally content and perfect with the trinity, He knew that there was love in His nature to give and ultimately the potential for it to be given back to Him. He knew everything that was going to happen and yet despite the heartache and pain we would cause Him the prospect of a potentially loving relationship was enough for Him to create the universe and put us in the middle of it. I am awestruck at the thought of the length God has gone just for the chance to have a relationship with me and therefore I am compelled to do the best I can to want to reciprocate. Within all that God has not required anything of us other than allegiance. He does not want us to strive to do anything but devote ourselves to Him and be willing to attempt to follow the will that He has for our lives. He is not asking us for performance just devotion.

The part of grace that particularly applies to service that is most intriguing to me is that we don’t have to do service to be loved by God. As humans, I believe we are very performance driven and there is a sense of worthiness and value that we believe to be attained by any kind of work or service. In the world, that’s how it works. Value is determined by ability and or achievement. But not with God. God loves and has loved every human being since the beginning of time exactly the same. He can’t love us any more and He can’t love us any less. This is hard for humans to understand because we are inundated with the idea of performance and often we take a performance based mentality to our relationship and service for God and this totally goes against grace. I am not saying that we shouldn’t serve, but not because we have to, but because we want to. God doesn’t want compulsory behavior. I think He wants us to understand His love and grace so deep that we have trouble doing anything other than love Him and serve Him with all our heart and will.

The best part of the whole process is that God promises that all we have to do is be willing to participate in His service. He promises to forgive us and keep on forgiving us and to sustain us and keep on sustaining us and He will do all the work through us to accomplish His will. Our job is to be willing and available for service and that only is accomplished when we are filled with grace and that only occurs when we are in fellowship with Him. It is impossible for us as humans to accomplish anything that is good for the kingdom outside of His fellowship. Within fellowship the possibilities are endless. My goal is to continue to grow in grace and see what God has in mind for me. I encourage all to do the same. The promised rewards and benefits of peace and joy are endless.