Word of Encouragement (01/25/2024)
He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great. 37 You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip; 38 I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed. 39 I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise; they fell under my feet. 40 For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. 41 You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them. 42 They looked, but there was none to save; they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them. 43 I beat them fine as the dust of the earth; I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets. (2 Sam. 22:35-43)
David praises God, saying, “For you equipped me with strength for the battle” (v. 40a).
When we think of God’s grace, we often think of His giving grace: He gives us what we don’t have. But that is not the only way God bestows His grace on us. There is another way, and we see an instance of it here: it is God’s enabling grace. David knew that His victory came from God. There were times when this was literally true, when Israel did not have to lift a finger to defeat its enemies. For instance, we read in 1 Sam. 7:10, “As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel.” This was at Ebenezer (7:12).
But God is not just a God of miracles; He is also the God of providence, who works through the means of natural phenomena and ordinary events. The ten plagues with which God punished Pharaoh were a mixture of both ways. They were all “signs and wonders” in the sense that they displayed God’s divine, supernatural power. But some of them resulted from God’s supernatural manipulations of the natural order of things (e.g., the plagues of frogs, gnats, boils, hailstorms, etc.) and others were God’s direct intervention (e.g., the plague of the water turning into blood, possibly the plague darkness, and definitely the Passover).
We love God’s giving grace. Who doesn’t like a free, extravagant gift? When we receive a gift like that, we get blown away; we can feel love intensely. But God’s enabling grace is grace, too. It is easier to see God’s giving grace as grace. That it is a work of God is more readily recognizable. Think of the manna with which the LORD fed Israel all through its wilderness journey. Think of the water that flowed out of a cleft rock.
But there may be a sense in which this enabling grace of God deserves more appreciation from us. When we are little, we love getting presents from our parents. But as we mature, we may appreciate the time they spend with us more than the stuff they get for us. Isn’t it true that, while we easily forget what we got from them, we remember what they did with us more? It is wonderful to eat the tuna Dad caught and brought home from his fishing trip. But to go on the fishing trip together and catch a huge tuna together with Dad? The enabling grace of God is like a dad spending time with his kid, training him to gain good and necessary skills for life.
By His enabling grace, God allows us to share in the glory and joy of His triumph. What a wonderful privilege! He doesn’t want us to be just helpless recipients of His gifts; He also desires us to be competent vessels of usefulness and honor, growing in our conformity to His glory. Let us not despise this privilege. Let us apply ourselves diligently to the ordinary means of grace and cultivate our talents to that end.