Great Grace

With the heart full of gratitude I warmly welcome you to the month of July, which is the beginning of the third quarter as well as the second half of the year. The first half of the year has been eventful with the unending and unquantifiable love of God towards us and His relentless faithfulness. Our theme for this month is GREAT GRACE and our anchor scripture is Acts 4:33, which says “And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all”. Recently God has been talking to us about flourishing and total freedom, we definitely need great grace of God to handle these carefully without falling into sin. In addition, in our current bible study series, God has been talking to us about the practical demonstration of love. Bible says “Love is patient, love is kind, love does not insist on its own, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails” I Cor. 13: 4-5. The more we demonstrate, in practical terms, what love represents, the more our lives will radiate the glory of God as genuine believers. While it may be difficult for us as human beings with passions to put all these into practise, we should always remember that the great grace of God is sufficient to help us through. Kindly note that the main assignment of a believer in the world is to preach about the gospel of Jesus Christ. According to our anchor scripture, great grace is required to do this effectively and efficiently. More so, we need the grace of God to live in holiness and purity as demanded by God.

The more we demonstrate, in practical terms, what love represents, the more our lives will radiate the glory of God as genuine believers.

Furthermore, when destruction was to visit the world, the bible recorded that Noah found grace in the eyes of the lord (Gen.6:8) and this led to the preservation of his life and all his households. So, the grace of God preserves, favours, empowers, enlarges, promotes, makes provisions and prevents calamity. Also, the grace of God attracts favour to someone’s life. When this happens it makes you relevant and accepted even where people want to reject you. This is the hallmark of Joseph’s life. The grace of God made him relevant in the house of Potiphar. The same grace made him relevant even while in prison and eventually in the whole land of Egypt when he became the prime minister. As God deals with us with His grace in this month of great grace, my prayer is that the grace of God will make all of us relevant in our academic, in our family, in our working places, in our career, in our city and ultimately in the house of God as well as all things pertaining to God in Jesus name.

Not that alone, Apostle Paul, in the bible, says “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (I Corinthians 15:10). From this scriptural verse, it is obvious that grace works more than power, ability, strength and intelligence in the life of a man. Grace places you in a good position where naturally you ought not to be by your antecedents. Grace also infuses in you the supernatural ability to do beyond the level which your natural capacity can carry you. The most important message for us as believers in this verse is that Paul worked hard to make sure that the grace of God bestowed upon him was not in vain. Brethren, I beseech you that you should not frustrate the grace of God upon your life, do not waste it but make maximum use of it to the glory of God alone. Always remember that Grace is not a licence to sin but a gift from God to overcome sin hence bible says “what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”(Romans 6:1). The answer is God forbids. I pray for you that God will give you grace to live above sin and your life will be full of God-given joy in Jesus’ name. I wish all of you a Happy 154^th Canada Independence anniversary.