Trusting God’s Grace And The Holy Spirit’s Work In Our Lives
Learning Lessons of Trusting God’s Grace and The Holy Spirit’s Work
My journey with Jesus began twenty-six years ago. The interesting thing about trusting God’s grace and His Holy Spirit’s work in my life, is that I’m still learning how to do that even now. Different situations, people, and personal struggles crop up all throughout our life giving us fresh opportunities to learn again and to learn more.
Over the years, I learned that trusting God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s work in our life force us outside of ourselves and our control. We normally recognize our need for grace when we recognize that we need something beyond ourselves.
The two commonalities of trusting God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s work are based on trusting beyond our own capacities and capabilities. When we don’t feel like we have the capacity to love or the capability to endure, we trust God’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s work in us. Both grace and the Holy Spirit are God-given gifts.
The Gift of Grace
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of ourselves: it is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:8
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"
Luke 11:13
The supernatural gifts of grace and the Holy Spirit help us live and love beyond the best of ourselves.
Trusting God’s Grace
Think about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.” Sounds comfortable, right?
I have a rose bush that produces some of the most beautiful, fragrant roses. But roses have thorns. And I know the sharp, stinging, discomfort of those thorns stuck in my flesh. Paul’s need for grace came when he experienced a sharp, stinging discomfort that he really wanted removed. Instead, God answered his removal request with supernatural, beyond Paul’s capacities and capabilities, GRACE.
Isn’t our reaction to “thorns in the flesh” for God to remove them from our lives as well?
When we experience the sharp, stinging discomfort of another’s words or actions, we too often pray that God remove the situation. More than removing our discomfort, God wants us to experience the power of His grace and His Holy Spirit working in us.
Like Paul, when we pray:
“God remove this situation that changed the trajectory of my life.”
“God remove that person’s hurtful words from their mouth.”
“Whatever You do, God, remove the sharp, stinging, discomfort from my life.”
God often says,
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
2 Corinthians 12:9
The power of grace in our life is sufficiency and God’s strength perfected in us when faced with what is beyond our own capacities and capabilities. Sometimes we find ourselves in a place where we simply trust God’s grace.
Trusting the Work of the Holy Spirit
I remember the day about twenty years ago when I prayed with my sister for her to receive Christ as her Savior. I had never done this before - not all by myself. We sat in her car in her driveway and both cried. I prayed. She repeated. We finished, hugged, and I urged her to believe that what had just happened was real.
The next morning when I opened my eyes, I thought through the different elements of the prayer I had her repeat. Then I began to mourn over the things I forgot to pray. I panicked! “Oh Lord what have I done?” God responded to my panicked prayer. “This is not your work, it is Mine.”
In that moment I realized the arrogance of my panic. I thought that somehow the words of my prayer worked salvation in my sister’s life. But the work belonged to the Holy Spirit alone.
Ephesians 2:8 says it is by grace through faith we have been saved. God gifted grace to us through Jesus’ death on the cross. The work of salvation was, is, and will continue to be a work of the Holy Spirit.
Think about the prayer that I led my sister to pray. If her salvation was limited to me leading her to say the exact right words, grace and the Holy Spirit really aren’t that important.
Grace and the Holy Spirit reached beyond my prayer capabilities and worked an eternal work of salvation in my sister’s life. When we learn to trust God’s grace and the work of the Holy Spirit, we can rest and rise higher. The thorns in our flesh limit us less because our past experience with God reveals a deeper power, a beyond ourselves capacity and capability.
Do you have any thorns in your flesh right now?
Anything you are praying and asking God to remove from your life or your situation? It is highly likely that God wants you to know the power of His grace and Holy Spirit working in you rather than simply fixing your situation. If both grace and the Holy Spirit are gifts from God, ask God to give you His sufficient grace and ask Him for the power of His Holy Spirit to work beyond your capacities and capabilities.
I believe God wants to demonstrate what you can do with His gifts.
