Friday, July 26, 2013

Prerequisite or Evidence?


Friday 7/26/2013 8:45 AM
This week my theme has focused on the beatitudes.  Usually when I read them I am overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy, an inability to live out any of them in a meaningful way on a regular basis.  Today I read this excerpt from A Pattern for Life, by Archibald Hunter.  “The Beatitudes are not so much ethics of obedience as ethics of grace.  They imply God as a gracious giver and man as a humble receiver.  They do not mean: you must do these things in order to deserve and win the divine approval.  Rather do they say: God gives his blessedness to those who claim no merit for themselves but, knowing their own heart’s needs, are content to rest wholly on the mercy of God.”  I wonder how long it will take before I realize fully that my obedience to God and his ways is not a prerequisite for his grace in my life; it is the evidence of his grace in my life.

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