Power for Living: Volume 5 Number 1

Power for Living: Volume 5 Number 1 

Connecting to His Grace for Continual Victories.

Focus Text: 1 Peter 5: 8 - 11

 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. 

To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

 

This is a letter that was written to Christians who were suffering under some degree of persecution and hostility for their faith. Like them, we too are living in a time in which it is growing harder and harder to live for Jesus Christ. Like them, we feel some measure of cultural pressure against our faith. And like them, we find that we are  being called upon increasingly to stand faithfully and sacrificially for our Lord in tough times.

In addition to the cultural pressures we feel around us, we also need to be on guard against a powerful spiritual enemy who is committed to our destruction. And what’s more, if you add to all of that our own personal weakness and failings, it truly does seem to be an overwhelming thing that Peter is calling us to do: to stand faithful to the Lord Jesus all the way to the very end.

Peter was a flesh-and-blood man, subject to all the failures and fallibilities that you and I suffer under. And if it had been up to him, he never would have ended his race on this earth faithful to the Lord Jesus. But it wasn’t up to him. It was up to the God who had called him and redeemed him. And I believe that Peter would want you and I to trust in the very same God that he trusted in to keep us and preserve us to the very end.

In 1 Peter 5:10-11, he expressed his confidence in God’s ability to keep His own dear redeemed ones; and wrote,

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen (1 Peter 5:10-11).

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; in the end, who is it that ensures that you and I will end our race faithful to the Lord Jesus? Is it us? I know that, to some degree, some of it is up to us. We are personally responsible to live faithfully for Jesus. But then again, is it up to God? I also know for certain that I could never do my part unless He first called me and empowered me, and unless He kept me by His gracious hand all the way to the end.

 I know that, in spite of my weaknesses and frailties, I must make the decision to stand faithful for the Lord Jesus, and must use the resources that He provides for me, joining with my brothers and sisters in Christ in the effort. I know that when I fail and fall and stumble, I must confess my failure, get right back up, regain the ground I lost, and keep on walking. I absolutely must do my part. 

But I also know that it is God who first took the initiative, who first called me to believe on Jesus Christ, and who first gave me the faith to believe, and who has given me the the increasing desire to walk with Him, and who helps me to grow and make progress in that walk every day; who has placed His enabling hand upon me, and has placed His empowering Holy Spirit within me; and who guarantees that I will complete that walk all the way to the very end, and all to the praise of His grace and the glory of His name. 

I am responsible, as Paul says, to ‘work out’ my own salvation ‘with fear and trembling’; but I can confidently do so, ‘for it is God who works’ in me ‘both to will and to do for His good pleasure’ (Philippians 2:12-13).

 We can stand faithfully for the Lord Jesus Christ in dark and difficult times with absolute confidence and joy. We can give ourselves completely to His cause, even when it goes against the tide of culture, or in the face of the devil’s opposition, or in spite of our own failings. God Himself will do His part to keep His people faithful all the way to eternal glory in Christ. We might at times fail; but if we obey Him, we cannot ultimately fail. 

Peter begins by saying, “But may the God of all grace . . .” Our assurance of ultimate victory in the end is because the God who stands by  us and for us is “the God of all grace”. And that’s one reason that His genuinely redeemed people can be assured that they will end in victory, because theirs is “the God of all grace”: the one from whom every good and perfect gift comes down (James 1:17).

Do you realize that right now, because of your relationship with Jesus Christ, you already have everything you will ever need for a life of victory before God the Father? As the apostle Paul puts it in Ephesians 1:3; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

You are wondrously and infinitely supplied! All that you will ever need to reach the end of your days on earth faithful to the Lord Jesus has already been given to you by “the God of all grace”.

But there’s another dimension to the word “grace”. It can also speak of specific “help” supplied to us at a time of need. When we are called upon to stand for the Lord Jesus in difficult times, or when it seems as if the devil is throwing everything he has against us, or when we feel that we are too weak or fearful to go on, our God is “the God of all grace” who supplies us with all the help we need. He gives us strength where strength is needed, or courage where courage is needed, or wisdom where wisdom is needed. 

If it were strictly up to you and me in our own resources to stand faithful for Jesus Christ in these difficult times, we would never be able to do it. But we can, and we are even assured that we will, because ours is “the God of all grace”. We can turn to Him for everything we need.

Are you in Christ? All that Peter is speaking of is only true of those who are in a relationship with God through faith in His Son Jesus. Are you in that relationship? Have you come to that place in your life where you have ceased from trusting in your own efforts to make yourself righteous and faithful to God, and placed your faith instead strictly in the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross? 

It’s really essential that you do so; because the assurance of your ultimate glorification isn’t based on your work but on His. And His work is done “in Christ”. I hope  today, you will make sure that you are in Christ by faith. What wonderful assurance we have in Him.

In spite of all the challenges and failings and pitfalls in the way, we who are truly “in Christ” will end up in victory, faithful to the end; because, as Peter says,

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen 

Prayers:

1.  God our Father, thank you for making your grace abound towards us to continue in your ways steadfastly to the end.

2.  God help me not to frustrate your grace, but to be sustained by it till the end, and help all the Believers in Jesus Christ also.

Thanks so much for going through this article: Power for Living.

It is a weekly publication of Ultimate Power Gospel Assembly, Nigeria.

For Prayers and Counseling, Contact:

Bishop Prof. Julius O. Soyinka 

juliussoyinka@outlook.com

+2348935822785