Verse for the Day, 6 May 2015.

Numbers 6:25, “…the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you…”

Today we come to centre point of the blessing, remove this element and the whole blessing collapses. Think for a moment how different our daily lives would be if God was not gracious. The fear and uncertainty that we would live in daily would be unimaginable. We would have no hope for the day, never mind the future. As for having our needs met, the rising of the sun, the changing of the seasons, the sending of the rains, we would have no certainty. Ultimately if God was not gracious we would not even exist, for each and every day we give God more than enough reason to destroy us in His just wrath. However, we would not have even come to be, for it is God’s grace extended to Adam and Eve that secures our existence. God warned them that they would die if they ate of the forbidden fruit, but God held that death at bay until a later time. Yes, they were handed over to death, in fact the moment they ate of the fruit they started to die physically and immediately died spiritually. But God extended grace to them so that they might come to repentance and salvation.

What would there be left to this blessing if grace were removed? Nothing! It is because God is a gracious God that He blesses us and protects us, that He reveals Himself and draws near to us. It is because God is gracious that He hears and answers our prayers, seeking to draw us into a relationship with Him and fills us with His great, soul-satisfying, abiding peace. In many respects we could say that grace is the determining attribute in our relationship with God, in fact in our very livelihood and daily existence. There is not a single moment, not even one second, whereby we are not 100% dependent upon God’s grace. Should God remove His hand of grace, the result would be beyond disastrous!

This grace in Numbers 6 also clearly points us to the one who is the very expression and fullness of God’s grace to sinful mankind. It is through the coming, the life, ministry and work of Jesus Christ that God’s grace comes to us. As John rightly tells us in John 1:17, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Jesus comes not only to demonstrate God’s grace to us, but also to provide God’s grace to us, so that we might enter back into a relationship with God. God is not just gracious to us in supplying what we need day by day and upholding our physical lives, He extends grace to us, so that He might accept His grace offered back to Him through the work of Christ and through this give us eternal life. God the Father sends God the Son in grace, God the Son demonstrates the grace of God to us. God the Son in grace dies upon the cross for us, offering up the free sacrifice of His life as payment for our sin, God the Father in grace accepts the offering of God the Son. Then God the Father in grace extends to us the grace of salvation. Grace, grace, grace, it is all about the incredible, divine and undeserved grace of God given to us. Grace that brings us into salvation, into God’s family and into the rich and eternal blessing of God.

It is to our own spiritual detriment that we fail to meditate upon the riches of grace given to us in Christ. As a result we rob ourselves of the great joy that could be ours, the confidence, peace, assurance and hope that comes to us all as a result of grace, in abundant measure.

Again, think of what grace has brought us and promised to us!

Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…”

This grace grants us all the promises of God, it gives to us every spiritual blessing to be found in heaven! It is a grace that keeps us so that we will receive all these promises and blessings. It is a grace that is poured into our lives day by day as God continues to forgive our sin. Let us be those who meditate daily upon the abundant grace that God has lavished upon us. If we make this our daily habit, it will serve to increase our joy, fuel our worship, aid us in our battle against sin, and enable us to be joy-filled witnesses to the world.

Gracious and glorious God, what can we say in response the great gift of grace that You have given us in sending the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank You for the fresh supply of grace that we receive from Your hand every day and shall continue to receive for all of eternity. Help us to meditate constantly upon Your grace, to rest and rejoice in it, and to declare the wonders of it to others. Amen.