Let grace-filled gratitude fill your life and ministry!

Paraklesis

[‘encouragement’, ‘exhortation’, for life and ministry]

January 2025

Dear friends,

The more we are aware of God’s free and powerful grace in every area of our lives and ministries, the more we will praise and thank him, the more we will trust him, the more we will depend on him, and the more we will entrust our lives and ministries to him. The more we are aware of God’s free grace in every area of our lives and ministries, the less we will be ruled by our own standards, the less we will depend solely on our strengths, energy, gifts, and wisdom, and less we will praise and thank him, because we think that we are the ones doing all the work!

Please ponder these words!

  1. You need more grace-filled gratitude for your creation and continued life.

A healthy awareness of God as both creator and constant sustainer of the universe, and so your creator and constant sustainer, is a great help to grace-filled gratitude in life and in doing ministry

Try repeating these words:

‘You knit me together in my mother’s womb’ [Psalm 139]. ‘[God] provides [us] with plenty of food and fills [our] hearts with joy’ [Acts 14:17]. ‘[God] richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.’ [1 Tim 6:17].

‘I am only alive because you, God, gave me life, and sustain my life moment-by-moment. Air is your constant gift, as are functioning lungs. You keep me alive by enabling my brain, body, and digestion to work. Every sip of water is your gift. I can touch, feel, hold, embrace, and work by your kindness. Even when I misuse or neglect my body, you sustain my life. Every gift is doubly precious: precious in itself, and precious as a personal gift of you my loving heavenly Father. Praise you, God our creator, for your grace-filled care of me, my body, my mind, my work, ministry, my pleasures, my joy, my life’.

2. You need more grace-filled gratitude for salvation in and by Christ.

We were saved by God’s gracious gift of his Son, who died on the cross for us. We were his enemies: he made us his friends by Christ’s great and costly work of reconciliation by his blood.

Try repeating these words:

”But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life [Titus 3:4-7].”

‘Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving me from God’s judgement, cleansing me from my sin, delivering me from darkness, and saving me from the service of Satan, and from futility. Praise you, dear Father, for your amazing grace.’

3. Your need more grace-filled gratitude for transforming sanctification in, through, and by Christ.

God continues to freely forgive our sins, even our habitual sins. The one prayer that we all need to pray every day is ‘Please forgive me this sin’, and God delights to do so.

Try repeating these words:

‘Gracious God, you transforming us day by day from one degree of glory to another, as we are conformed to the likeness of Christ. By the power of his death, we can put sin to death. By the power of his resurrection, we can live a new life. Help us to ‘work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for you are working in us to will and to act in order to fulfill your good purpose’ [Phil 2:12-13]. And as we deny the works of the flesh, may the Spirit bear these fruit in our lives, ‘love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ [Gal 5:22,23].’

4. You need more grace-filled gratitude for God’s work in us, through us, and by us, in every act of ministry.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation: we are not. We plant and water, but God gives makes the seed grow [1 Cor 3:5-7]. He created us in Christ Jesus to do good works, and prepared good works for us to do [Ephes 2:10]. In all of our ministries, ‘it is the same God at work’ [1 Cor 12:6]. Our ministry is God’s ministry, which he graciously chooses to achieve through us and by us. So our aim is to please him, not ourselves, and not others! And every act of ministry is an immense privilege. We have our ministry, as Paul did, ‘through God’s mercy’ [2 Cor 4:1]; so, he wrote, ‘I worked harder …. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me’ [1 Cor 15:10].

Try repeating these words:

‘Gracious God, you have prepared me in Christ Jesus to do good works, prepared good works for me to do, and when I serve or speak, they are your words and works, done in the strength that you provide, so that in all things you may be praised through Jesus Christ [Ephes 2:10 and 1 Peter 4:10-11]. Please equip us with everything good for doing your will, and work in us what is pleasing to you, through Jesus Christ [Heb 13:21]. May your grace be at work in all of my ministry [1 Cor 15:10].’

Please notice!

We are often express our ‘Grace-filled gratitude for salvation in and by Christ’.

We will increase our grace-filled gratitude, our praise and thanks to God, our trust in God, if we also express our ‘grace-filled gratitude for creation and continued life’.[1]

We sometimes neglect our continued transformation of life, character, and ministry, so we should also express our ‘grace-filled gratitude for transforming sanctification in, through, and by Christ’.

And sometimes we think that we have been saved by grace, but will be justified by our works of ministry!

This trust in our own works of ministry drives us either to pride or despair, both immensely destructive! So we need more ‘grace-filled gratitude for God’s work in us, through us, and by us, in every act of our ministry’.

Please ponder these thoughts, and pray these prayers, for the glory of our gracious God, Father, Son, and Spirit!

Yours,

  1. Failing to glorify God and give thanks to him for his eternal power and divine nature revealed in his creation of the world is described as a significant sin in Romans 1:21. And, if you fear that doing so will draw your attention away from Christ, remember that his glory is also found in his work in the creation of the world [John 1:2-3, 1 Cor 8:6, Col 1:15-17, Heb 1:1-4].