Given to Give

It is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:2

Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 4:1–7

John Wesley, an eighteenth-century leader of the Methodist revival, believed that genuine faith in God should be evident in the way we live—through holy living, generous giving, and compassionate care for the poor. As Wesley’s income increased, he made a remarkable choice: his giving increased, but his lifestyle largely did not. His practice reflected the three principles he taught in The Use of Money: “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” By “save,” Wesley did not simply mean accumulating wealth, but avoiding waste and unnecessary extravagance so that more could be shared. Paul takes us to the heart of Wesley’s conviction when he asks, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). Our possessions, abilities, opportunities, relationships, influence, and even our time are gifts placed in our hands by God. Everything begins with grace.

Yet Paul reminds us that stewardship reaches far beyond our possessions. We have been “entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed” (v.1). In Scripture, a “mystery” is not something puzzling or secret, but God’s saving purpose once hidden and now revealed in Jesus Christ—the good news of the gospel. We did not invent this message, nor does it belong to us; it has been entrusted to us. We are called to receive it faithfully, live it faithfully, and share it faithfully. Christopher Bryant writes, “We declare how we value God as much by our actions… as by anything we say.” Our stewardship of the gospel therefore involves both life and voice. How we spend our time, treat others, use our resources, and speak about Christ can all reveal the treasure God has placed in our care. As Paul says elsewhere, “We have this treasure in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Paul brings everything together in one simple requirement: “It is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Faithfulness is practiced in the ordinary choices we make today. We might look at what God has placed in our hands—our money, time, abilities, influence, and above all the good news of Christ—and choose one concrete way to use it for another person’s good. We can give rather than accumulate, encourage someone who is struggling, offer our abilities without seeking recognition, or share the hope of Christ through our words and actions. Good stewardship does not begin when we have more; it begins by faithfully using what we have already received. What has God entrusted to us today, and how can we use it for His glory and the good of another?

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, 

Everything we have comes from You. Thank You especially for entrusting us with the good news of Christ. Teach us to receive with gratitude, live simply, give generously, serve willingly, and share Your grace faithfully. May we honor You with all You have placed in our hands and speak of Christ through both our lives and our words. 

Amen.

Kept by Grace

Read: Psalm 19:7–14

Keep Your servant back from presumptuous sins;

 let them not rule over me.

Psalm 19:13

We often open the Bible looking for encouragement, but sometimes we find a mirror. A familiar verse suddenly exposes an attitude, resentment, or desire we had hardly noticed. David understood this searching power of God’s Word. He describes it as perfect, trustworthy, right, and pure—“enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:7–8). Then he asks a surprising question: “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults” (v. 12). When Scripture reveals something uncomfortable within us, we need not hide from God. The light that exposes us is also grace, because God reveals what He desires to forgive and heal (Psalm 139:23–24).

David then goes beyond asking forgiveness: “Keep Your servant back from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me” (Psalm 19:13). Charles Spurgeon compared our sinful nature to an ill-tempered horse needing a bridle. David recognizes that without God’s help he could wander farther than he imagined. His prayer is not simply, Lord, forgive me when I fall, but Lord, keep me from falling. Grace is not only God’s mercy after we sin; it can also be His loving restraint before we sin. A troubled conscience, a Scripture that interrupts our plans, a friend who warns us, or even a closed door may become instruments of God’s protecting grace. “Let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

David ends by praying, “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight” (Psalm 19:14). This is God’s Unlimited Grace working from the inside out. Grace searches us, reveals what is hidden, forgives us, restrains us, and gradually transforms us. We may never know how many wrong turns God’s grace has quietly prevented. Spiritual maturity is not reaching a place where we need grace less; it is learning how completely we depend upon it. So alongside “Lord, forgive me,” perhaps we need David’s equally humble prayer: “Lord, keep me.” For He “is able to protect you from stumbling” (Jude 24).

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 

Search our hearts through Your Word. Forgive what is hidden, restrain us when we are tempted, and by Your grace keep our thoughts, words, and lives pleasing to You.

Amen.

Drop the Stones

Read: John 8:1–11

“Neither do I condemn you. Go. 

From now on do not sin any longer.” 

John 8:11 

Before telling us about the woman caught in adultery, John includes a quiet detail: “Jesus went to the Mount of Olives” (John 8:1). Charles Spurgeon saw this as a picture of Jesus withdrawing from the noise around Him into fellowship with His Father. The Gospels often show Jesus slipping away to pray (Luke 5:16). Then, early the next morning, He returned to the temple. Almost immediately, He faced an angry crowd, religious manipulation, and a woman publicly exposed in her sin. Yet Jesus remained remarkably calm. He bent down and wrote on the ground. Before facing the noise of the crowd, He had been in the quietness of His Father’s presence. Perhaps there is a lesson for us: we are better able to extend grace to others when we are continually receiving grace from God.

The religious leaders demanded judgment. “In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. What then do You say?” (John 8:5). But Jesus replied, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (v. 7). Joseph Parker observed that Jesus allowed conscience to do its work. He did not publicly list the sins of her accusers; He simply invited them to examine themselves. The men came wanting the woman to confront her sin, but Jesus made everyone confront his own. One by one, they walked away. The woman’s sin had been exposed publicly; theirs had remained hidden. Yet before God, “all things are open and laid bare” (Hebrews 4:13). The closer we come to Christ’s holiness, the less eager we become to throw stones, because His light reveals our own need for mercy.

Finally, Jesus asked the woman, “Has no one condemned you?” Then came the words that opened a new future: “Neither do I condemn you. Go. From now on do not sin any longer” (John 8:10–11). Jesus neither excused her sin nor imprisoned her in it. Grace came first, then the call to a changed life. This is God’s Unlimited Grace—truth without cruelty, holiness filled with compassion, and forgiveness that opens the door to transformation. We come before God empty-handed to receive mercy. Perhaps we should leave empty-handed too, because hands that have received grace should no longer be eager to carry stones.

Prayer: 

Lord Jesus, 

Help us receive Your grace deeply, lay down our stones of judgment, and extend to others the mercy and hope You have given us. 

Amen.

 

Strong in Grace

Read: 2 Timothy 2:1–13

“You therefore, my son, 

be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” 

2 Timothy 2:1

When Paul tells Timothy to “be strong,” we might expect him to say, Dig deeper. Try harder. Be courageous. Instead, he says, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1). Grace and strength may seem like opposites—grace is something we receive, while strength sounds like something we develop. But Paul brings them together. Grace is not only God’s mercy that forgives us when we fall; it is God’s strength that enables us to keep going. Charles Spurgeon pictured Christ’s grace as a great reservoir continually supplying those who draw from it. John describes that abundance: “Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace” (John 1:16). When we need pardon, there is pardoning grace; when we wander, restoring grace; when we are weary, strengthening grace. The reservoir never runs dry.

Paul knew this sustaining grace personally. Writing from imprisonment, he could say, “I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen” (2 Timothy 2:10). Grace did not remove his hardship; it strengthened him within it and even enabled his suffering to serve others. We may not understand the purpose of our hardest days while we are living through them. Yet God can use what we endure to encourage someone walking a similar road. The comfort we receive from Him becomes comfort we can offer another (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). Grace received in suffering can become grace shared. God’s grace is not meant merely to fill us; it can flow through us to others.

Then comes Paul’s remarkable assurance: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful” (2 Timothy 2:13). Our strength may fail, but Christ’s supply does not. Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches” (John 15:5). A branch does not manufacture its own life; it remains connected to its source. We are not the reservoir—Christ is. Spiritual strength begins by admitting that we are not self-sufficient. We become strong not by needing Christ less, but by learning to draw more deeply from Him. His unlimited grace strengthens us for today, carries us through suffering, and enables us to strengthen others.

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 

When we are weak and weary, teach us to draw deeply from the grace of Christ. Strengthen us for today, and let the grace we receive flow through us to encourage others. 

Amen.

No Condemnation

 

Read: Romans 8:1–11

“Therefore there is now no condemnation at all 

for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 

Romans 8:1

We can be remarkably good at remembering our failures. A careless word, a wrong decision, or a sin we thought we had overcome can return to accuse us. Yet Romans 8 begins with one of Scripture’s greatest declarations of grace: “There is now no condemnation” for those who are in Christ Jesus (v. 1). Paul does not say less condemnation, but no condemnation. Our acceptance before God rests not on our ability to make ourselves worthy, but on what God has done through Christ (v. 3). Awareness of our weakness, then, need not drive us away from God; it can become the very place where grace draws us back to Him (1 John 3:20).

But grace does more than change the verdict over us; grace changes the life within us. Paul says, “the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9). Even our desire to turn toward God is sustained by His grace. We do not manufacture the Christian life by our own strength. As we yield to God, His Spirit gradually redirects our thoughts, desires, and choices, for “the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace” (v. 6). Even when change seems slow or prayer feels weak, God continues His work within us (Philippians 2:13).

This is God’s Unlimited Grace. Grace looks at our past and says, “No condemnation.” Grace meets us today and says, “The Spirit dwells in you.” And grace points toward tomorrow with the promise that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to us (Romans 8:11). We need not remain imprisoned by yesterday or manufacture tomorrow’s holiness. The grace that forgives us also gives us the Spirit, bringing life where there was death and peace where there was fear.

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 

Thank You that in Christ there is no condemnation. Help us rest in Your grace, yield to Your Spirit, and walk each day in Your life and peace. 

Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria

The Open Door

Read: Romans 6:1–14

Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, 

but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:11 

If God’s grace is unlimited, does it matter how we live? Paul anticipates the question: “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” His answer is emphatic: “Far from it!” (Romans 6:1–2). Eugene Peterson points out that Romans 6 moves from what God has done for us to the new life we now live because of it. We are not saved because we become good enough; we are saved by grace. Yet grace does not leave us where it found us. Paul says we were “buried with Him” so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, “we too may walk in newness of life” (v. 4). Grace not only forgives the life behind us; it opens the door to a new life ahead.

N. T. Wright reminds us that Christ’s resurrection is not merely a past event we believe or a future hope we await. Resurrection life begins now. Paul therefore tells us to consider ourselves “dead to sin, but alive to God” (v. 11). Imagine a prisoner whose sentence has been settled and whose prison door has been opened. After years behind bars, he may still think and behave as though the cell is where he belongs. Old habits may even draw him back toward it. In the same way, temptation and familiar patterns can call us back to what once held us captive. But Paul says our “old self was crucified with Him” so that we would “no longer be slaves to sin” (v. 6). Christ has opened the door. Sin may still tempt us, and sometimes we may stumble, but it is no longer our master. We are free to walk with Christ in newness of life.

That is why Paul gives us this wonderful promise: “Sin shall not be master over you… for you are… under grace” (v. 14). Grace does not mean that sin no longer matters; grace means that sin no longer has to rule us. We do not obey so that God will love us; we obey because He has already loved us. Holiness is not the price we pay for grace; it is the new life grace produces within us. And when we stumble, grace points us again toward the open door. The grace that says, “You are forgiven,” also says, “You are free.” God’s unlimited grace does not merely release us from the life that held us captive—it invites us to step through the open door and live as people who are alive to God in Christ.

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 

Thank You for Your grace that forgives, frees, and makes us new. Help us leave behind what once held us captive and walk through the open door into the newness of life You have given us in Christ.

Amen.

Saved by Grace

Read: Ephesians 2:1–10

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; 

and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” 

Ephesians 2:8 

We are used to earning things. We work for a paycheck, study for a grade, and sometimes feel we must even prove ourselves worthy of love. Without realizing it, we can bring the same thinking into our relationship with God. But Paul tells us that we could never earn our way to Him. We were “dead” in our sins (Ephesians 2:1). Then come two wonderful words: “But God” (v. 4). Rich in mercy and great in love, God reached toward us and “made us alive together with Christ” (v. 5). Philip Yancey has often written about the wonder of grace as receiving from God what we could never earn or deserve. Grace begins not with our goodness, but with God’s goodness toward us.

A simple way to remember this is G-R-A-C-E: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Grace is freely given to us, but it came at great cost to Christ. Jesus gave Himself so that we could receive what we could never achieve for ourselves. That is why Paul calls salvation “the gift of God” (v. 8). A gift is received, not earned. Carlo Carretto gives us a beautiful picture of living in that grace. He describes himself as immersed in God like a drop in the ocean or a fish in the sea. Imagine beginning each day with that awareness. We are not standing at the edge of God’s mercy wondering whether there is enough for us. In Christ, we are surrounded by grace deeper than our failures and greater than our need.

Yet receiving grace does not mean that how we live no longer matters. Paul says we are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (v. 10). Good works are not the price of grace; they are the fruit of grace. We love because we have been loved. We forgive because we have been forgiven. We serve because God has first given Himself to us. This is God’s unlimited grace: undeserved like a gift, vast like an ocean, and powerful enough to make the spiritually dead alive in Christ. We cannot earn it. We simply receive it with open hands and allow His grace to flow through us to others.

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father, 

Thank You for Your gift of grace. Help us stop trying to earn what You freely give. May Your grace fill our lives and overflow through us in love, forgiveness, and service to others. 

Amen.