{"id":924,"date":"2011-02-20T19:55:46","date_gmt":"2011-02-20T23:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/?p=924"},"modified":"2011-08-19T21:53:28","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T01:53:28","slug":"prevenient-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/2011\/02\/prevenient-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Prevenient Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Since the holiday season, I have found myself in several discussions that touched on the concept of prevenient grace.\u00a0 Several of my readers have asked for more information on this subject, and I have waited patiently for God to give me the inspiration and understanding to address prevenient grace in a manner that will edify and encourage my brothers and sisters.<\/h3>\n

Many envision God as a god of wrath who punishes those who believe the wrong things and rewards those who believe the right things.\u00a0 They would have you place more emphasis on doctrine than on works, and more emphasis on works that on relationship.\u00a0 I do not know their god.\u00a0 What I do know is that we will never be holy, never have a perfect understanding of the scriptures, and \u00a0never accomplish enough good works to be worthy of the love, forgiveness, and eternal life He has promised to His children.\u00a0 I also know that whatever doctrine you may be hearing from the self proclaimed righteous, they don\u2019t measure up either!<\/h3>\n

If we are all so badly flawed, then how can we possibly find our way to the presence of His holiness?\u00a0 That process starts when we stop believing in God, and as a result of the prevenient grace he has shown us, we start BELIEVING GOD!<\/h3>\n

\"De<\/a><\/h3>\n

I learned about prevenient grace when I attended Aldersgate Women\u2019s Walk to Emmaus<\/a> #99, where I sat at the table of Martha.\u00a0 If you have not participated in a Walk to Emmaus, Cursillo, or one of the many \u201cthree day\u2019s\u201d, I recommend it highly and\u00a0 would be honored to connect you to a \u201cfourth day\u201d community near you.\u00a0 If you are on your fourth day journey as I am, De Colores!<\/h3>\n

Prevenient grace is the activity of God wooing us from the <\/span>moment of our conception into a loving relationship.\u00a0 It is the grace that prevents us from moving so far from God that we cannot respond to God\u2019s offer of love.\u00a0 It is the grace that is extended to us from the moment of conception to the moment of conversion.\u00a0 God reaches out to us to bring us into a relationship with Him, and it is through that relationship that He is able to begin His work of perfecting us to take our place as His children, destined to inherit all of the promises contained in the Holy Scriptures.<\/h3>\n

God always finishes what He starts. \u00a0He always does what He says He will do.\u00a0 This is as true for your life as it was in the lives of the people we read about in the scriptures.\u00a0 In Philippians 1:4-6 Paul wrote to that church \u201cIn all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, THAT HE WHO BEGAN A GOOD WORK IN YOU WILL CARRY IT ON TO COMPLETION UNTIL THE DAY OF CHRIST JESUS.\u201d\u00a0 Just as He reached out to offer a covenant relationship to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David, through prevenient grace He calls to us \u00a0to enter into a covenant relationship with Him.\u00a0 The most important things to grasp here are:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. \n

    That God takes the initiative, He is the pursuer, and when you respond to his invitation, He is the one doing the work of perfecting, NOT YOU!<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n

    This is going to take some time\u2026 \u201cuntil the day of Christ Jesus\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    On the day I was conceived, He began a good work in me.\u00a0 On the day you were conceived He began a good work in you too.\u00a0\u00a0 That is prevenient grace.<\/h3>\n

    \"Here<\/a><\/h3>\n

    And so our relationship with God begins.\u00a0 Prevenient grace has brought us this far, now His justifying grace begins to shape us.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to be perfect, because God is, and He already knows we are not.\u00a0 The God I know is a God of abundant grace, who created us to be in relationship with Him.\u00a0 When we engage God in this way, we hunger for His Holy Word, we recognize His fatherly promptings, we do good works because we desire to, and most importantly WE BELIEVE HIM!\u00a0 All of this is possible, not because of what we do, or what we believe, but because His Holy Spirit makes it so!<\/h3>\n

    When we join God as He does His work in us, we begin to bear fruit.\u00a0 We do not need to analyze what is good, bad, right, or wrong, and judge others because they don\u2019t meet some doctrinal criteria we feel one must meet to get past St. Peter at the pearly gates.\u00a0 We are freed by allowing God to do His work in us, with confidence that He has extended the same grace to others and is patiently doing His work perfecting them as well.<\/h3>\n

    Blessings & Adventure,<\/h3>\n

    Lynn “lynnibug” Rios<\/h3>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Many envision God as a god of wrath who punishes those who believe the wrong things and rewards those who believe the right things. They would have you place more emphasis on doctrine than on works, and more emphasis on works that on relationship. I do not know their god. What I do know is that we will never be holy, never have a perfect understanding of the scriptures, and never accomplish enough good works to be worthy of the love, forgiveness, and eternal life He has promised to His children. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,3],"tags":[80,19,81,7,65],"class_list":["post-924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","category-discussions","tag-emmaus","tag-journey-to-greatness","tag-prevenient-grace","tag-growth","tag-who-do-you-belong-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onemonthofwisdom.com\/wisdomblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}