Growing in grace: What does that mean and more importantly how is it accomplished? I won’t answer these questions too specifically because I think there is some fluidity in both answers and we need to leave room for the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts as individual people with circumstances peculiar to ourselves.
Let me start by saying that growing in grace is another way of talking about abiding in Christ. It is this state of increasing freedom and contentment in being God’s children along with a deepening affection for God, which such an affection is moving us toward the ultimate place where Christ is our highest object of affection, and living for him is our greatest source of joy.
If you ever uttered the desperate words, “Why was I even born at all?” you are not alone and there is an answer. God tells us that everything that exists was created by Christ and for Christ; that nothing exists that he did not create, and everything that he created he created for himself. (see Col 1:16)
What this tells us is that the reason we were born at all, the reason we exist is because Christ decided that we should exist. As the one who existed before any created thing came to be, he has the right to make this decision. It really is not anyone’s decision whether someone else comes into being. However, it is not just that Christ randomly decided the create you and me. There is more to the story than that. It is also the case that he made this decision because it was good for him that you and I become. We were created by him and for him.
Consider the idea that you were created for Christ. You were brought into this world to be his, to bring him glory and to exist in him. You might react poorly to this thought at first because you think the reason for your messed up life is found in the selfish behavior of a deity. But consider it further. Later in that same section of the bible we are told that the things that were created for him are held together in him and are being reconciled to him. (see Col 1:17, 20)
You see, Christ cares deeply for the ones he created. They are his possession and therefore he takes care of them. He makes sure they don’t break, and he works to heal them when they are sick bringing them back into him where they are best placed. Christ cares for you, and even now, he is seeking to reconcile you to himself so that you can rest in him.
An interesting thing about Christ is that He found his right place, his center in the Father because the Father loved him without limit. Christ’s love for us is so great that he created us to find our right place, our center, in Him, and he expressed that love for us by dying to reconcile us to himself.
So, when you ask the question, “Why was I even born at all?” remember, you were born to be in Christ. Seek to abide in him today.
It strikes me this morning that we are told by Peter to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15) and that this instruction presumes that there is hope in us. I have to ask the question about how one develops and maintains a hopefulness in this life that would demand an explanation from those outside of Christ. This brings me to Christ’s instruction to the woman of Samaria. He said to her, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
It seems then that one develops just such a hope by drinking in Christ. In other places in John’s gospel it is described as abiding in Christ. But how do you drink in Christ? How do you abide in him? Well, the answer is not very difficult to give, but we know that it is difficult to follow sometimes. What I will say is that the more you do this thing, the more your well will overflow and yet the more you will want to be filled even more.
At the most basic level, the answer then is bible reading and prayer. It is essential that we fill our minds and hearts with words of truth from the Bible, that we consume them as the very words of God, for man does not live on bread alone but on these very words of God. It is also essential that we speak to God about everything in our life. We must learn to carry on an ongoing conversation with Him about everything, and I mean everything. By reading His word and conversing with Him we are indeed drinking from the well that fully satisfies and gives a hope that demands an explanation.
May God bless you richly as you come to His fount of many blessings, Amen.
