#1761 1212 12W

            We all too often limit God by not claiming our Atonement rights and asking Him for all that He has for us.  God has more forgiveness, grace, strength, and power than any amount of our failures, weakness, sin, and guilt.  His life of holy living is so much more than a life of rebellious sin, so God can overpower the devil and enable us to live a life of obedient faith in Him.  God has more power, healing, grace, forgiveness, supplies, and anything else than we could ever need.

            If our living expenses for one day would be fifty dollars, but our daily earnings were one-hundred dollars, then we would say that our income was much more than our expenses.  The message of the Bible is just that—God has much more in His storehouse of blessings, healing, strength, and financial resources, and He is more willing to give that supply, than we have need of it.  His inventory always over-reaches our need—because His supplies are inexhaustible.

            God always has much more, but Satan always says it is much less.  Because of the rebellious sin-nature that tries to control us, it is easy to accept Satan’s much less in unbelief, rather than God’s much more in believing faith.  Doubt can hinder our prayers and blessings.

            If we are willing to believe and accept God’s much more, we will be inspired in faith to know that God always has more than we need of anything, and He is ready to supply that need by believing Him in faith.  The promise of more money is received by putting the Word into practice.  Luke 12:33 ”Sell your possessions and give alms.  Provide yourselves with purses that will never wear out, a treasure inexhaustible [faileth not] in Heaven.”

            When we are inspired to put more believing faith in God, then His promises of more provisions can be received.  The apostle asks Romans 8:35-37 ”Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

            Nothing can do us any harm unless we allow it to through our own unbelief.  We can overcome the temptations of the devil, because God has more grace and inspiration for us, than we need.  Philippians 4:13 ”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,”—His strength is perfect!  We are more than conquerors through Christ who paid our debt.  There is no temptation, no trouble, no person, or thing that could do us any harm—Romans 8:37 “in all these we more than conquer, through him who loved us.”

            The apostle added Romans 8:38-39 ”For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  No matter what, or who, would try to dissolve our faith or cause spiritual harm, God has much more grace and strength for us to overcome by faith in Christ.

            That is valuable information to retain in memory—we do not have to give in to fear, and there is no reason to be upset.  As a true child of God, we should not be frightened by anything, anyone, or any situation.  God has more peace than the devil has fear.  Philippians 4:6 ”Do not be over-anxious about anything, but by prayer and earnest pleading, together with thanksgiving, let your request be unreservedly made known in the presence of God.”

            Someone may tell us what horrible things could happen, but we are to counteract such negative remarks with a reminder that everything must pass through God before it reaches us.  No matter how serious it may seem to be by the world’s viewpoint, nothing can harm us when we are in God’s will, and are ready to learn spiritual lessons of faith.

            Satan will suggest how many times we tried in our own strength and failed—time and time again, but the voice of truth comes from the Word of God that tells a different story, and reminds us that God is far more than anything coming against us.  Romans 5:6 ”For when we were yet without strength [still powerless, still helpless, still ailing], in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

            God gave us His most valuable gift, and He did His greatest work for us, when we had no desire, ability, or power to do anything for ourselves.  When we were totally helpless, and having no merit of our own to earn it, God gave us far more than anyone could need—He gave His only begotten Son.  So, Romans 8:31-32 “If God be for us, who can be against us?  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

            God will give much more than we need of strength, ability, deliverance, healing, money, food, or anything—if we will believe Him and act in faith on His promise.  There is no comparing the value of God’s Son with anything here on earth, and He gave that gift when there was nothing to induce God to give it.  Someone may give their life for a good person; Romans 5:8 ”But God gives proof of His love to us in Christ’s dying for us while we were still sinners.”

            If Jesus died to make us friends with God, when we were enemies of God, He would do that much more now that we are forgiven.  Romans 5:9-10 ”Since we have now been justified [been declared righteous] by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through [by] his life!”

            When we fully understand the meaning of being forgiven by His resurrection to life, we will be confident to live by faith in that Atonement sacrifice.  When Jesus died on the cross—He took away all enmity between us and God; and when He rose to life—He reconciled us to be right with God.  If God would make us friends by giving His Son, then He would that much more enable us to live an overcoming life of faith.

            Romans 5:10-11 ”For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.”

            One man, Adam, started sin in the world, and it has increased exponentially through the centuries.  Sin brings condemnation, but God offers reconciliation—through believing Him and trusting on the Atonement of His Son.  God’s pardon always keeps one step ahead of our sin.

            Romans 5:15-16 ”The free gift is not like the offense.  For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.  And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.  For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.”

            There is much more pardon and grace to forgive our sins by atonement, than we could need.  Satan chases us, but he makes no progress because God’s forgiveness and grace is always far more, and wins the race.  Romans 5:17 ”For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

            Since we have all been partakers of Adam’s sin and need pardon, then we need to be that much more partakers of God’s righteousness through faith in Christ.  If someone robbed us of one-hundred dollars, we would be quite unhappy, but if we were immediately blessed with a gift of two-hundred dollars, we would be better off than before the loss.

            We have all been participants of Adam’s sin and guilt, because Romans 3:23-24 “all alike have sinned, and all consciously come short of the glory of God,” but it is possible through the Atonement of Christ to be pardoned of any sin committed—“gaining acquittal from guilt by His free unpurchased grace through the deliverance which is found in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 5:19 ”For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

            Even though sin brings condemnation, the cross gives exoneration—through faith in the Atonement of Christ.  Romans 5:20-21 ”The law entered that the offense might abound.  But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

            It makes no difference how much we disobeyed God; how rebellious we have been, or how seriously we have sinned against God—it could be multiple times, deliberately, and worse than anyone else—but God’s forgiveness and grace is always much more, than the sin and mistakes we are guilty of committing.

            Jesus says—Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  Jesus gives the facts that prayer is the foundation principle on which to receive these multiple blessings God provides.  8 ”For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

            We are to ask in prayer, claim in faith, and sincerely believe in our heart that God will do what He has promised to do.  If we give good gifts to our own child, Matthew 7:11 then, “how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts [James 1:16-17] to those who ask him!”

            The short cut to God’s blessing, is our acting in faith on His promise.  The man, who believed in his heart, was healed by God in a moment.  Mark 2:5 ”When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’"  He believed in his heart, so he acted in faith.  Mark 2:12 ”He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all.”  He did not have to wait, because he believed that God’s grace is always much more than any sin he committed.