♣ The Staggering Kindness of God

“…knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance…” – Romans 2:4

GOD’S GRACE IS what breaks every child of His who is dear to Him – and every child is dear to Him. What softens us toward God is when we are most conscious of our failings and the acute awareness of our deserving of His displeasure and judgement and yet in grace, God tenderly restores us, heals us and cleanses us from all wanderings and waywardness.

How often can we count the blessings lavished on us when we know we have in no way deserved them? We all (most of us) know that there is nothing innate that warrants the benevolence of God, but sometimes we may think and feel that we do because of our obedience – and there is no getting away from it, that God does indeed bless obedience, but there is the danger of slipping into earning God’s continued smile upon us that binds us with a yoke of fearful slavery where grace inevitably becomes altogether distorted; we don’t see it from a Biblical standpoint but from man’s that ever tries to exalt himself.

This is a sobering reminder that we were saved by grace and that we must continue by grace to remain in Him. Always be mindful that it is because of Christ praying for us that we continue to persevere in the faith, that we continue repenting – repentance that displays the characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

If God has truly known you before the foundation of the world and has effectually called you to Himself in order to know Him, then be sure He will purify, He will continue cleansing all that stands contrary to His ways in your life. God is never in the business of choosing those who will not partake in His holiness; He has not saved us primarily to escape hell and God’s wrath but to be fully conformed to the image of His Son.

We can surely testify to the fact that we are kept solely by the power of God, by the mercy of God and it is His staggering kindness toward us that breathes within us the desire to know Him more, love Him more and please Him more.

The very aspect of God that breaks, melts and turns our hearts is His longsuffering and immeasurable kindness toward us when we know full well He would be perfectly just and righteous to treat us according to what we undeniably deserve; nothing reveals the magnitude of our sin more and nothing gives us more hope than when we stand in the light of God’s inexhaustible love and grace.