Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Hope sanctifies, grace sustains, and the faithful walk of the believer is the work of God from beginning to end.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Hope sanctifies and hope purifies. One whose hope is from the Lord and in the Lord has every confidence. He who lets his heart wander and stumbles in the way causes his own assurance to waver. He who keeps his heart steadfast on the Lord does not do so by his own wisdom, his own strength, or his own ability. His desire, power, and every ability he has is given him by God. Let no man who walks steadfast and faithful boast in his ability, his strength, his love for God, or his desire to please God, for all he has is grace and that grace is given freely by God. He walks steadfast and faithful and he desires to do so because of grace.

When he walks contrary he does so by his own power, by desires that are contrary to that which God has given him. His wrestling against such desires of his sinful flesh is that of grace, for he knew not such power to overcome before as he knows now.

Boast much and boast often, but always with the right object. Christ alone. For no man ever raised himself from his pitiful and wretched state or set himself on the course of life, peace, hope, love, truth, light, and salvation by any will, desire, or effort of his own. It is all of grace.

Today if you walk faithfully and please the Lord, praise Him for His grace. Today if you stumble, repent and rise a bit bruised and with marks that remind you of your weakness and His strength, and praise Him for His grace. As you set your eyes upon Him and partake of His ordinary means of grace, praise Him, for you dear saint were never meant to walk alone. His grace saved you. His grace sustains you. His grace will bring you safely home. It is all of grace.

Abuse not grace and call your walk faithful and your salvation true. Walk by faith according to the grace of God at work in you. Let not grace be that which you presume upon while knowing nothing of its regenerating and sanctifying work. Many dead men presume upon grace and know nothing of its power. They neither boast in it nor are made alive by it. They are dead, deceived, and presume upon its riches while knowing nothing of its life.

You dear saint know its author, its originator, its riches, its power, and its humbling effect. You know it, and when you stumble you grieve having sinned against such grace. You know you cannot earn it and do not deserve it, though your heart has been changed by it and is being changed by it.

Continue steadfast and faithful. In the day whereby you may stumble, rest not there. Arise immediately, repent, throw off the thoughts that beset you, acquaint yourself with the riches of grace, adorn your life with it, partake of its ordinary means, and think rightly of its beauty. See clearly every threat against its power at work in you.

Let the grace of God work in you and let hope set within you a joy, a peace, and a love for the One whom you shall soon behold. Let hope have its sanctifying work in you as your heart increasingly longs for that which lies ahead. Let faithfulness adorn all your abilities, those grace given abilities, such as God may be glorified even in the quiet work which your hands find to do for His good pleasure.

You do it not for man, though many say this and mean it not. Let your hands find to do that which most glorifies your Lord in the ordinary everyday faithfulness of works seen by God alone. Do it all for His glory, for what else might there be if it is all of grace?

Let your heart abide in Him and in His Word, His grace having its perfect work in you. Then what your hands find to do comes forth from a mind set on the Lord, a heart shaped by truth and grace, and hands finding to do all as unto Him. Let your words be few and faithful, adorned by grace.

Grace upon grace, amazing grace.