Word of Encouragement (11/6/2020)

In the coming days, we will share some good, practical ways to pursue holiness.

“1.    Understand that the means of grace are appointed by God. They are ineffective in themselves but derive their efficacy for growth from God’s Spirit. Notwithstanding, they cannot be neglected without much harm. For example, while a farmer prepares his soil, plants his seed, and cultivates plants, he depends on God to bless his labors with good rain and sunshine, and thereby to bring about a great harvest. However, if the farmer neglects to prepare, plant, and cultivate, the sun and rain alone will not bring him a harvest. In the same way, you must give yourself diligently to the means of grace to expect a harvest of righteousness, not as the fruit of your labors but as God’s blessing on His appointed means.

“2.    Remember that though God has promised to make you holy, these promises do not exclude the means He has appointed to bring it about. Just as there are promises made of grace, so there are promises made to grace. For example, while you cannot by any natural capacity hear and believe the preached Word, God has commanded that you should hear the preached Word, for it is the means by which He converts and comforts you. [“Promises made of grace” are those that are based on God’s grace. By “promises made to grace,” the authors seem to mean the promises concerning the means of grace—how God would use those means to grow us in grace.]

“3.    Although the means of grace cannot effect holiness by themselves, they are so necessary for it that no one can be converted or sanctified who neglects or refuses the use of those means by which God is pleased to dispense His free and underserved grace.

“4.      It is true that God works some things without means, thus manifesting His great, omnipotent power. But He has willed to work most things in relation to our conversion and progress toward holiness by the use of means. Thus, your neglect of those means not only brings harm to you but dishonors God” (pp. 158-159). It is like complaining about how difficult the work God assigned to us is and accusing God of being harsh when God has given us all the instruction and tools necessary to complete the task. Instead, let us cherish, and be diligent in the usage of, the means of grace—the Word, the Sacraments, and prayer.