I wrote my New Year’s resolutions in March.
You did read that correctly.
And, big surprise, resolutions don’t change your life.
God’s grace changes your life. The ultimate change in our lives as believers, Salvation, only comes through God’s grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone can boast.”
We were lost sinners destined for eternal suffering before God and His grace stepped in to change our lives. Oh, what grace!
But back to New Year’s resolutions… they are often easy to write, hard to keep. And it’s about this time of the year (March or so) that your goals are probably barely hanging on if they’re not already thrown out the window.
Well, do not worry, friend. You can still make changes in your life. There’s not a date on the calendar that keeps the Lord from working in and through you. You don’t need to wait until January 1st 2022 for new things to happen or for you to grow in your faith. Change can happen now by God’s grace.
Here’s two aspects of God’s grace that can help you change and encourage you TODAY.
His Grace Is New Every Morning
God’s grace, mercy, and compassions are new every. single. morning.
The prophet Jeremiah reminds us in Lamentations 3:23 that God’s mercies are new every day. It says, “The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, for His compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.”
That means that each and everyday, God is ready to meet you with the grace that you need.
What is Grace?
Grace is getting what we do not deserve. The apostle Paul explained it this way in Romans 4:4-8: Now to the one who works, the wages are not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.’”
And R.C. Sproul said this of grace, “Grace should never cease to amaze us. God has an absolute, pure, holy standard of justice. That’s why we cling with all our might to the merit of Jesus Christ. He alone has the merit to satisfy the demands of God’s justice, and He gives it freely to us. We haven’t merited it. There’s nothing in us that elicits the Lord’s favor that leads to our justification. It’s pure grace.”
There’s nothing in us that would call for God to give us grace. But He grants it to us.
And he does it every single day of our lives!
You can rely on God’s grace no matter what the day is, or the month, or the year. He is always faithful to provide grace for us each and everyday.
So, no matter what day you are on, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whatever it may be! You can start over. You can start new goals, God’s grace is there for you today.
And, even further. There’s not a specific time that God will help you either. Having a bad day? Pray to the Lord and ask Him to help you start over right then and there. There’s no reason to throw out a whole day when you can start over by God’s grace.
God’s Grace is Sufficient For You
Not only does God’s grace reach out for us each and every day, but it is also sufficient for us.
The apostle Paul also told us about the sufficiency of God’s grace in 1 Corinthians 12. He wrote of his thorn in the flesh, the one thing that bothered him, that got him down, that made his life difficult. We don’t actually know what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, but we do know that it filled his life with hardship. He pleaded with the Lord on multiple occasions to have this thorn in the flesh removed and it didn’t happen.
But Paul knew that he could rely on God’s grace despite his hard circumstance. Here’s what he said, “I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me. And he has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I delight in weakness, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in difficulties, in behalf of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
The same is true for us, friends. When we are weak and we rely on the Lord and His grace, then we are strong. It is His sufficient grace that changes us when our circumstances do not change. Then we can keep moving forward, growing and learning, and trusting the Lord along the way.
His grace is sufficient for whatever we may face. Hardships, losses, difficulties. His grace is sufficient for when we haven’t met our goals or expectations. We can rely on His grace to see us through our year even if we haven’t completed our resolutions!
Today is the Day for Change
Today is the day to make changes! There’s not a problem with making a list of goals today. You don’t need to wait until January 1st to change something in your life. Commit to the Lord today. Write out new goals today. Make new plans for the month today. Renew your mind in Christ today.
Go for it, by God’s grace.
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