Grace and Truth

A little while ago I woke in the night and found myself challenged as to the purpose of my life. Somehow the older you get the more serious becomes the question: how is the rest of my life best spent?

It seemed to become very clear to me what God’s response was to this question and I ended my time awake by making Him a promise. "Lord, I am determined that the priority each day will be to walk in the grace and truth of Jesus Christ, while embracing the fullness of the identity and personality that You have given me."

In a fresh way that night I recognised that walking in His grace would mean a radical lifestyle of undeserved kindness, forgiveness and restoration, both giving to others but also receiving from Him.

I similarly saw that walking in His truth would mean no compromise, no hiding, no unreality, no masks, no pretence, no dissociation, no cover-up and no running away, and I saw that without this lifestyle of truth there couldn’t be the operation of true grace.

These thoughts, which I offer to you to consider today, were very challenging for me, but seemed to simplify the meaning and purpose of my life. The plumb-line of walking in grace and truth could be the check on my decision-making each day and the great benefit was that success would come from surrender to the One who is already complete in these attributes and not by my personal striving. I found a new place of peace that night.

Prayer: Father, thank You that the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. Amen.