Dying Grace
During my teen years, the Lord taught me how to trust Him with everything. I continued to grow in His grace and the knowledge of His love. It is amazing how God blesses us when we submit our lives to Him. As we die to self and seek His will for our lives, He provides the path. It becomes your choice to either follow His path or seek your own way.
To learn how to die to self, I had to first understand death. As a child, my parents never talked of death in our home, yet death came. I remember meeting my maternal grandfather when I was in the seventh grade. My mom’s dad had deserted his family when my mom was only 11 years old. She, then, had to help raise her younger brothers and sisters. I couldn’t understand why my mom wanted me to meet this man. She told me, “honey, grandpa won’t be with us much longer and I want him to meet my little girl”.
I explained that he had never been with us and there was no need to meet him but, meet him I did out of respect for my mom. I can remember this aged-looking, feeble man take my hand and hold it like it was the greatest treasure he had ever held. Tears filled his eyes as he told my mom, “thank you”, “this means the world to me”. Within one week, my grandpa had died. I, for the first time in my life, knew what death was. Death is the actual separation of the spirit from the body. It is absence from everyday life as we know it. It is the inability to perform functions like we did before.
I tell you this story to explain that the dying Grace I am talking about is not the Grace that gets you through the loss of a loved one, but the Grace that allows you to be the person God purposed you to be when He called your name for salvation. II Timothy 2:11b For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. Salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ is your first step to the process of dying grace. As growth in the knowledge and understanding of the Lord continues, you will discover along with Timothy that we must die with Christ to truly live with Christ. You ask, “how can I die and be alive at the same time?” We must die spiritually to the old self, the world, our desires, and anything or anyone who stands between us and the relationship with our heavenly Father. Every morning when I awaken, I have to put on Christ anew. I must make a personal decision to follow His will or my own. Paul spoke of this in I Corinthians 15:31b …I die daily.
Death – Separation – Inability to Function. This is what Christ asks of those of us who believe on Him for His saving grace. We must give of ourselves daily to His life; prayer, reading His Word, and serving others. As we grow in this dying grace, God is glorified. He calls us to live a separated life with the inability to function as we once did before we came to know him. Just as the loss of a loved one separates them from our lives and we are no longer able to function in the same activities with them, we must do this with our old self before Christ. Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Christ spoke of this death (His own) in John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. It is clear that to experience true growth, a person must die in the flesh.
May God receive All Glory and All Praise
To learn how to die to self, I had to first understand death. As a child, my parents never talked of death in our home, yet death came. I remember meeting my maternal grandfather when I was in the seventh grade. My mom’s dad had deserted his family when my mom was only 11 years old. She, then, had to help raise her younger brothers and sisters. I couldn’t understand why my mom wanted me to meet this man. She told me, “honey, grandpa won’t be with us much longer and I want him to meet my little girl”.
I explained that he had never been with us and there was no need to meet him but, meet him I did out of respect for my mom. I can remember this aged-looking, feeble man take my hand and hold it like it was the greatest treasure he had ever held. Tears filled his eyes as he told my mom, “thank you”, “this means the world to me”. Within one week, my grandpa had died. I, for the first time in my life, knew what death was. Death is the actual separation of the spirit from the body. It is absence from everyday life as we know it. It is the inability to perform functions like we did before.
I tell you this story to explain that the dying Grace I am talking about is not the Grace that gets you through the loss of a loved one, but the Grace that allows you to be the person God purposed you to be when He called your name for salvation. II Timothy 2:11b For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. Salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ is your first step to the process of dying grace. As growth in the knowledge and understanding of the Lord continues, you will discover along with Timothy that we must die with Christ to truly live with Christ. You ask, “how can I die and be alive at the same time?” We must die spiritually to the old self, the world, our desires, and anything or anyone who stands between us and the relationship with our heavenly Father. Every morning when I awaken, I have to put on Christ anew. I must make a personal decision to follow His will or my own. Paul spoke of this in I Corinthians 15:31b …I die daily.
Death – Separation – Inability to Function. This is what Christ asks of those of us who believe on Him for His saving grace. We must give of ourselves daily to His life; prayer, reading His Word, and serving others. As we grow in this dying grace, God is glorified. He calls us to live a separated life with the inability to function as we once did before we came to know him. Just as the loss of a loved one separates them from our lives and we are no longer able to function in the same activities with them, we must do this with our old self before Christ. Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Christ spoke of this death (His own) in John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. It is clear that to experience true growth, a person must die in the flesh.
May God receive All Glory and All Praise