WEEK 1 - THE HOLINESS OF GOD
Our focus during this first week is on the Person of God and His attributes. Our Triune God is perfect in holiness and in all of His other attributes. As we see Him for who He is, see Him in the fullness of His glory, may we be drawn to a posture of worship before Him. He is perfectly worthy!
DAY SEVEN - THE MERCY AND GRACE OF GOD BY GARY FRIESEN
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities (Ps. 103:8–10).
God delights in extending mercy and grace to His deeply loved children. More than 20 years ago, I received a call from a friend in another state who was a chaplain in a juvenile prison. He was calling about a 22-year-old prisoner who, at the age of 16, had murdered a gang member who had threatened his life. While in prison, he had responded to the gospel and been discipled by my friend. Because the young man was sentenced as a juvenile, the law now required that he be released. Gang members threatened to kill him if he remained in the area. So, my friend called to arrange for the young man to stay with friends near my home.
Several days later I picked him up from the airport and brought him home. Over dinner that night he told the remarkable story of his conversion and shared how God had miraculously arranged for him to take an internship, working with youth at a church in a nearby city. This young man’s experience of God’s grace was tangible. He knew that he deserved a lifetime in prison, not a new life, a new job, and freedom.
And this is true for each of us. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Like this young man freed from a prison sentence he fully deserved, we all live in the undeserved freedom of God’s grace and mercy provided through Christ.
PRAYER POINTS:
1. Thank God for specific ways He has extended His grace to you.
2. Ask God to reveal to you where you can share with others the grace God has extended to you.
3. Pray for those close to you who desperately need to daily experience His mercy and grace through our Lord Jesus.