Recovery Devotional 353 Use Grace NOW

JMD Devotional 353 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 Use Grace NOW

LABORING TOGETHER [as God's fellow workers] with Him then, we beg of you not to receive the grace of God in vain [that merciful kindness by which God exerts His holy influence on souls and turns them to Christ, keeping and strengthening them--do not receive it to no purpose].

For He says, In the time of favor (of an assured welcome) I have listened to and heeded your call, and I have helped you on the day of deliverance (the day of salvation). Behold, now is truly the time for a gracious welcome and acceptance [of you from God]; behold, now is the day of salvation!

Today’s a heavy burden-I’ve got to process this-I call on God and all of you. A brother in Christ, a friend of mine, took his life the other day. We served together, shared Communion, took scores of kids camping, met early for men’s breakfasts, held Bible study in each other’s homes, he even took me in when my wife and I were separated to get me into counseling. In the process of time, and through church splits, we went on with our lives and lost contact. From his best friend, I now hear of his battle with clinical depression. His disease amplified the darkness of his world: of pastors resigning, of missions failing, of ministries falling apart, of a hostile and oppressive work place, of a costly and seemingly endless war on terrorism, of the declining health of loved ones, of a society slipping into chaos: when you are sick you can’t absorb the goodness in the world, only the bad. With darkness apparently reigning death seemed better than going on and on and on. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33-34:

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

AA has token coins for staying sober for 24 hours, for 1 week, for 1 month, for 6 months and 1 year. They even have minted a coin for really struggling souls celebrating 1 hour of sobriety! When it comes to suicide we need the same thing. There has been many times that I could not face the prospect of living through years of recovery and the financial dept my dysfunction created, of the long slow rebuilding of broken relationships, of facing the my demons daily. I had to take God’s grace in real time: “one day at a time”; and sometimes minute-to-minute. Grace is like the Manna that God fed the Israelites with in the desert. If they bottled it and saved it for another day, it quickly rotted and produced maggots. Manna from Heaven has to be consumed IMMEDIATELY. Tomorrow never comes; do not put off grace. Do not take God’s grace in vain: it is given as it is needed, it will sustain you if you depend on Him.

Dear God,

I am stunned and overwhelmed with grief. Why didn’t he cry out for help? Why are men such lonely islands, so private, so isolated? Please make us aware of each other’s pain, draw us close enough to feel it ourselves, and to share each other’s burdens. It is long past time to discard the masks in Church, to be real and openly profess, “I’m not all-right, it’s not O.K., I’m hurting and broken inside!” No brother or sister in Christ should be alone in his or her misery. There is no God-forsaken place. Darkness will not reign. Come, Daystar, arise in our hearts. The only way I can keep going is to daily depend on Your grace. Bear me, Lord.

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

I originally produced these blogs between 2006 and 2007, which were then published in my book, JMD Recovery Devotionals. In 2010, I am sending these out to a few people as I review them and see if my point of view has changed.

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