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In many parts of American society, people participate in a process called ‘floating checks.’ That is, because they are forced to meet a deadline or pay for an item or service, they are asked to write a check to an individual and/or company even though the actual money is not in the bank account. This individual and/or company agrees to ‘hold’ the check until a post-dated date in the near future.

As a friend asked me a few weeks ago to ‘hold’ a check that he was writing to me, I couldn’t help but think about the principles that God wants to deposit into our life account — checks of grace. Unfortunately, He can’t because we have not yet opened up the account with humility in it.

James 4: 6 clearly shows us how God gets grace to the believer. James writes, “God gives grace to the willing humble” (The Message). Who are the ‘willing humble’ that James refers to here? I think James is giving us the picture of the person who readily admits that without God’s grace, he is absent of anything, no hope of any progress and no boasting of any accomplishments. This picture even includes the person who is busy for God in an attempt to earn more brownie points with God in exchange for special permission to try to get a pass on life’s troubles, challenges and frustrations. Literally, Christ turns away from those who trust in themselves.

In honesty, I have been guilty of this at times. I’ve trusted myself to get myself out of certain jams. I have trusted myself for intelligent answers to common conversations. I have trusted myself for solutions to ministry challenges. I have trusted myself to be a good parent when God is asking for me to be a Godly parent. I have trusted myself to be a decent husband when God is calling me to be a divine representative of Him to my wife. And sadly, sometimes I have trusted myself in preparing a sermon to impress people, when God wasn’t interested in me impressing people, but really impacting people. For the record, I have had to repent. Not only that, I have had to admit that if I want to continue to receive God’s grace, that is His power to do His will in fullness, I must follow a pattern that He’s set for me:

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article courtesy of TheStreamingFaith.com/Overseer Christopher J Harris

Daily Devotional: “Grace Checks”  was originally published on praisecleveland.com