I am not trampling on His grace…
I really don’t want to trample on God’s grace. I remember a few years ago, we bought our youngest son his first phone. We felt he was pretty young, and so we got him a LifeProof phone case. Why LifeProof? One of Lifeproof’s marketing slogan was that LifeProof allowed you to live your lifestyle, and so you could take your phone with you anywhere. You could take it swimming, rock climbing, skiing… whatever… LifeProof is so resilient that there is zero chance of you dropping your phone and smashing it; zero chance of water getting into your phone and causing it to malfunction. With such product razzmatazz, we invested and got our son this shield. We did not want to replace a phone, we intended him keeping the phone for a long while.
Our son loved the case. He became intrigued by its safety claim, such that in time he put it to the test. One day I caught him throwing his phone up with glee. I yelled at him, ‘What are you doing?’ He replied, ‘You said it will take anything, right.’ He will do this often, with mischief. And yes, the phone was protected; though this act brought some heartburn and exasperation.
Indeed we had our money’ worth. The case was good. I recommend it. Bear this is mind, I am not selling you the case, I am speaking of something much weightier than this case. God’s grace is a billion times more protective than the LifeProof case. I do not need to throw God’s grace to test it. He has shown His grace many times in my life: how much He protects me from every evil, accident, and harm that might be lurking. I know for a fact that He will protect me. That is already settled in my mind. What I must avoid is taking advantage of His grace. Though I know He will catch me, I must refrain stepping off a cliff – just because I know He will catch me. The same with our walk with Him, because I know He will forgive me – does not give me the license to keep on sinning, when I know better. In John 8, there was a woman caught in adultery who the Pharisees were eager to stone. They brought her to Jesus, hoping He would judge and condemn her. He didn’t, but He asked whichever one of them who had never sinned to cast the first stone. Of course they all had sin dripping from their hands, and so one by one, they left, leaving the woman. Jesus said to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”
“No, Lord,” she said.
And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
When He says ‘Go and sin no more,’ He is telling you not to trample on His blood.
Unfortunately, I believe many of us can be like my son. He knew better. The case was not to be thrown. And yet He felt He could test the case. That was what Jesus fought against in Luke 4:1-13, when the devil was trying to get Him to test God. Luke 4 v 9-12 says: Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’ ”
The devil is always looking to lead us to test and tempt God. He is always saying such, ‘Throw Him up again! And again! And again! God is strong. He won’t break. He is Love. Sin again and again and again. His grace is sufficient for you. Lie again. Cheat again. Gossip again. Hurt someone again! You just keep trampling on His blood. He is strong enough. He can take it!’
What fun it is to read Jesus words: ‘It has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.’
Next time we are tempted to go off the cliff of righteousness, may we remember Jesus’ words: ‘It has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.’
Linda Faith
Linda faith is the Editor in Chief of Jewels Magazine. She has authored eight books. She is a prolific writer and powerful speaker, inspiring many women to be all God has called them to be. She is the founder of Joy Women’s conference which reaches out to empower, inspire and motivate women in their faith walk. She was a software developer before she started writing.
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