Considering Goals and Grace

This morning I enjoyed two hymns - one actually led to the other. You may be familiar with them. The first hymn spoke of having God as our unique goal.

1 My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
'Tis His to lead me there—not mine, but His-
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.

2 So faith bounds forward to its goal in God,
And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;
Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard
Till God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

3 No matter if the way be sometimes dark,
No matter though the cost be oft-times great,
He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark,
The way that leads to Him must needs be strait.

4 One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;
One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;
My God my glory here, from day to day,
And in the glory there my great Reward.

As I considered the goals I hold in my heart, I had to confess to the Lord that He was not my unique goal - I often prayed for peace, for joy, for blessing. Then I realized that only Christ is the source of real joy, lasting peace and all blessing! So He must be my unique goal. I realized that since Christ is the source of these things, daily I need to seek Him, not seek them....which led me to the next hymn, a familiar favorite for many:

1 Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wand'ring from the face of God;
He, to save my soul from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

2 O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter,
Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee.
Teach me, Lord, some rapturous measure,
Meet for me Thy grace to prove,
While I sing the countless treasure
Of my God's unchanging love.

3 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;
Prone to leave the God I love:
Take my heart, oh, take and seal it
With Thy Spirit from above.
Rescued thus from sin and danger,
Purchased by the Savior's blood,
May I walk on earth a stranger,
As a son and heir of God.

The Lord Jesus is the Font of every blessing. Oh, Lord, tune our hearts to sing Your praise! Verse 2 of this hymn speaks of being a debtor to grace. The title of this blog is the varied grace of God. Many would say the definition of grace is "God's unmerited favor." While is isn't false, it is short of what that favor is. That favor, that grace is having access to God, enjoying God, partaking of God, and experiencing God. That grace is active! In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul said:

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.

The footnote for Not I but the grace:
10-2 Not I but the grace of God equals no longer I ...but ...Christ in Gal. 2:20. The grace that motivated the apostle and operated in him was not some matter or some thing but a living person, the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of God the Father who became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who dwelt in the apostle as his everything.

Then I read the gospel of John chapter 1 - there were three verses about grace that I enjoyed:

John 1:14, 16, 17
14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

16 For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.

Once of the references for grace in these verses is Romans 5:2:

Romans 5:2
2 Through whom also we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and boast because of the hope of the glory of God.

Footnote 2-2: Grace is the Triune God Himself, processed that we may enter into Him and enjoy Him. Grace here, in the deepest sense, is the Triune God as our enjoyment. It is more than unmerited favor and more than mere outward blessing. We are not merely under God's blessing; we are in His grace (see note 2-3).

Footnote 2-3: Faith first gives us access into grace, then, a solid standing in grace.

Dear ones, by faith we have access into this grace and as we continue in the Lord, our standing is in the grace as well. If we see this grace as a Living Person, how marvelous is our standing! How rich is grace! Grace is just our wonderful Lord Jesus, the fount of every blessing, our unique goal.

Much love to all of you. Please pray for more energy each day. Also, that I would know the Lord's restriction for how much to do each day. It is hard - life runs at quite a high speed - you don't realize it until you are out of it for a while and try to get back in. It is quite dizzying! But He is able.

Joanne