By Lianxin, United States
When it comes to God’s grace, many of the Lord’s brothers and sisters will think of these: Their families are safe from disaster, their spouses work smoothly with a high salary, their children are obedient, sensible, and successful in their studies, and they are living a peaceful and harmonious family life. They think these are God’s grace. In the beginning, I also thought like this. Later, through studying the Bible I came to know that God’s grace is far more than these, and the greatest grace bestowed upon us humans by God is His word. As long as we follow His word and act according to His demands in everything, we will receive greater blessings from God.
First of all, let’s read Noah’s story recorded in the Bible. It tells us that the people in Noah’s day didn’t revere God. They stopped at no evil, such as theft, robbery, murder, raping, looting, and so on, which was unbearable for God to witness. Therefore, God intended to destroy the evil mankind with a flood. Nevertheless, before destroying mankind, He still had mercy on them and hoped that they would confess their sins and repent so that they could survive. So, God commanded Noah to make an ark, and told him that He would flood the world. Noah listened to God’s words and did as God instructed. During the time when he was building the ark, he continually passed on God’s will to people that God would destroy the world with a flood, but no one believed his words and turned back and truly repented to God. In the end, on the day that the ark was finished, the flood came. Apart from Noah’s family of eight embarking upon the ark, all of mankind drowned. From this, we can see that Noah listened to God’s word and acted according to God’s word so that he received God’s grace and blessings, surviving the catastrophic disaster; others didn’t listen to God’s word so that they lost God’s grace, losing their lives.
Then let us look at the Lord Jesus’ disciple Peter. During the time when he followed the Lord, he listened closely to the Lord’s words at all times and remembered them in his heart to ponder carefully. He acted strictly according to the Lord’s word and followed His demands, and when he did something that was in violation of God’s will, he felt remorseful and repented to the Lord, and resolved to act according to His demands next time. Peter followed the Lord’s way, acted in strict accordance with the Lord’s word, and obeyed the Lord Jesus and His words in his working and preaching. Therefore, he was enlightened and illuminated by the Holy Spirit and said that the Lord Jesus is Christ, is the Son of the ever-living God. As a result of his knowledge and obedience of God, he gained the grace and blessings from the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus gave him the keys of the kingdom of heaven (See Matthew 16:15, 19).
The Bible also states the stories of many other ancient saints and prophets who obeyed God’s word and gained God’s grace and blessings, such as Daniel, Abraham, and so on. Here I won’t list out them one by one. From the experiences of Noah and Peter, we realize that when we practice God’s word and act according to His demands we will be able to receive God’s greater grace and blessings, surviving the disaster or entering into the kingdom of heaven and gaining eternal life. This is far more valuable and meaningful than receiving some material blessings. God’s word is just the lamp to our feet and the light to our path, and is the truth, the way, and the life.
Revelation chapter 2, verse 7 says: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches; To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the middle of the paradise of God.” Clearly, God will return in the last days to speak to and lead all mankind. Only if we carefully listen to God’s word can we receive the greatest grace and blessings bestowed on us humans by God.
