Making Room for God's Power and Grace

Isaiah 58:10-11, Exodus 14:19-31, Psalm 114, Romans 14:1-12, Matthew 18:21-35

Today we start a new week that will explore the theme "Making Room for God." Today we have several scriptures that explore ways in which God needs to have room to work where frequently we deny him space to work. Specifically, God has impressed on me that desires us to allow him to work in two ways: through power and grace.

Making room for God's power:
In Isaiah we are told to feed the hungry and help the afflicted. In so doing, God can work miracles. Now, too often Christians argue about the insidious question "Are we saved by faith or good works?" This question is a trap! Be careful! Be creative in how you respond, PLEASE! One thing from this passage that pops out to me is that God longs to act through our deeds of service and compassion. So often Christians either...
(1) don't believe that their simple actions will do much good, or
(2) are too focused on their own spiritual life to bother about the physical sufferings of their neighbors (everyone!), or
(3) they are simply too lazy...!

Whichever the case is for you right now (for me its probably #3...) God desires for us to endeavor to do good deeds because God can make them great. We do not do great deeds simply for our own sakes. We must make room in our good deeds for God to accomplish great things. So help someone out! Feed the hungry! Assist the needy! Give God the chance to act! After all, we see in Exodus how good used Moses to part the Sea so that the Israelites could pass through on dry ground. God didn't have to use Moses, but he did! He could have just done it himself (after all, he IS God!). Likewise, we are called to do great things in God's power by Jesus, but we rarely give God the chance to act through us. Take a chance! You'll be surprised!

Making room for God's grace:
In Romans, Paul urges us to accept those with both weak and strong faiths without judgment. While for Paul the issues of petty division were eating certain foods and treating certain days as holy days of special importance, for us the issues may be the same or different (like radical lifestyles, ecological habits, manner of dress, movie and music choices, etc.) Do we think that being Christian requires us all to agree on these minor details. Some people may be able to live comfortably at peace with God without the radical lifestyles others are pressed to search for in order to maintain a closer, deeper relationship with Christ and creation. Who are we to judge!? Certainly discuss these things, but don't let them be divisive. We are all united by Christ, our common foundation! Allow God to treat people with grace and mercy just as we treat people with grace and mercy. Jesus' parable of the unmerciful servant illustrates how important it is for us to live out a lifestyle of grace and mercy. Let God convict each of us on how we are to live our lives. Be a good influence, hold each other accountable, and love each other as a family; but let grace define relationships.