"This Grace"
This grace, it is a gift:
To live this life and be
perfectly loved by a Savior
whom lives inside of me!
Wrapped and adorned
I see this present,
Not underneath a tree.
Rather, a precious reality.
Its' ease, a delight. I journey,
to bring this treasure forth.
Not of mine own do I try,
but by His grace, of course!
For even in attaining
divine favor and needed strength,
I may not lean upon my
flesh that lies beneath
the perfect law of liberty,
the freedom from above,
that only He can give me;
A gift I truly love!
You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:1
This verse stood out to me as I had my devotional time the other day. I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts. I am by no means a Greek scholar, but I always find a good word study to be a great way to dig a little deeper into God's Word.
I found it interesting that Paul said, “be STRONG in Grace.” "Isn’t strength what grace is all about?" I thought. Grace is God’s empowerment toward us. It is His ability in our ability. So what could it mean to be STRONG in His STRENGTH?
I looked up that word "strong." It is the word endynamoō (Strong’s G1743). Besides the obvious, that it looks similar to our word dynamo or dynamite (it would be improper Bible interpretation to assume that it meant dynamite btw), this word means to “increase in strength.”
When used in a bad context, it means to be “headstrong.”
Mmm…This started some wheels turning. Could it be that Paul was saying to us “be stubborn in the grace that is in Christ Jesus?” I believe that is exactly what he meant.
Paul knew that there would be attacks on the grace that can only be found in Jesus’ Christ. He knew that the very strength that we find in His completed work, would be challenged by a world system that would attempt to get us to return to works as a means of salvation.
It is in this same context of scripture, that Paul tells Timothy he must “endure hardness as a good soldier,” and that he would need to “compete according to the rules.”
No, this is not Paul’s way of saying that grace would excuse our good works. Rather, it would be the undeniable power that we would need to carry the works He has called us to unto completion!
He knew that to stand for the gospel, that we would desperately need this gracethat would help us to stand and to endure for Him.
In light of this, He was admonishing Timothy (and all believers now) to continually strengthen himself in His grace. If you will, he was saying,
“be stubborn about staying in the grace of God that can only be found in Christ Jesus.”
This grace is truly an immeasurable gift. It not only saves unto an eternity with Him, but it empowers our lives here on earth. We must stubbornly hold onto grace as the priceless possession that it is.
He's empowering every detail of our lives by His grace.
Hope you enjoyed the poem and thoughts, and remember...God is in the details!