PSALM 119:133 – Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me.
THEME OF THE DAY. LIVING THE GRACE-DEPENDENT LIFE. The Christian life is a dependent life. Actually, it is a grace-dependent life. From start to finish, all of the Christian life is one of grace. God saves us by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9), God keeps us by grace (1 Peter 5:10), and God will present us to Himself blameless before Him all by grace (Jude 24).
As Christians, we know this truth of life. We know everything we have and everything we are is all by God’s amazing grace. However, just knowing Biblical truth does not mean living Biblical truth. That is one of the dangers of having daily access to the Bible and being in good Bible-believing churches. We are constantly exposed to Biblical truth, but exposure is not a guarantee of application. There are enough Christians around that know a ton of Bible but live maybe an ounce of Bible. It shows by worldliness, indifference, and a life far removed from the one Jesus came to give – the abundant life full of joy, holiness, passion for the Gospel and under the control of His love (John 10:10). But this isn’t a “spiritual beat down” of a nugget. We want to live more and more what we know. We long more to experience the grace-dependent life. And God desires this of us also. So, how do we get there? How do we begin to understand and live the grace-dependent life? It starts with today’s scripture and two attitudes, really two prayer petitions, which lay the foundation for a grace-dependent life. Both are in today’s scripture.
First, a grace-dependent life knows that without grace, we will go “off the rails”. The Psalmist writes, “Keep steady my steps according to your promise.” We may see in this plea, not only in the Psalmist, but ourselves It goes like this, “Lord, if You don’t guard my life. If you don’t keep me on the straight and narrow, I am going to make a mess of my life. I will sin. I will willfully sin. I will fall. I will bring dishonor to Your name.” This is a great petition to daily pray because it is true. And as we do, we will grow more and more dependent upon the Lord of all grace because we will see more and more our dependence on His grace.
Next, a grace-dependent life knows that without grace, sin will get a stronghold in our lives. Again, the Psalmist cries, “Let no iniquity get dominion over me.” This godly man not only knows that if grace doesn’t keep him on the straight and narrow, but also grace must keep sin from ruling in his life. Every child of God has “secret bosom” sins. Those areas of weakness tailor made for us. It might be lust, anger, impatience, materialism . . . the list is long, but there are certain areas that the devil and our flesh know we are prone to wander into. How do we keep them from getting dominion or rule over us? Not by personal resolve but by persevering grace. We need not only keeping grace in the grace-dependent life, but empowering grace in the grace-dependent life; an empowerment enabling us to conquer weak areas in our lives.
The Christian life is a dependent life. A life constantly dependent on God’s grace, and to live this life, it all begins with knowing how weak we are. And it is in knowing our weakness, we begin to live off God’s strength – the strength in His amazing grace.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to know more and more myself so that I might more and more depend upon You.”
QUOTE: “We simply cannot live a dependent upon grace life until we see our total dependency on grace for life.”