New Morning Mercies #235

Don’t be satisfied with anything less than all God’s powerful grace is able to produce in you and through you.

I know it’s my problem and I suspect it’s yours too—we’re just too easily satisfied. It’s not that we want too much from God. No, the reality is that often we are willing to settle for too little. We are content with a little bit of change, a little bit of growth, or a little bit of maturity. We settle for a little bit of biblical understanding and a little bit of theological knowledge. We say we love redemption and that we are thankful for God’s grace, yet we become spiritually satisfied long before that grace has completed its work.

If our parenting seems to be working, if our marriages are livable, if our jobs aren’t terrible, if our finances aren’t a disaster, and if we have nice houses, good churches, and good health, most of us are satisfied. But God is not satisfied. He knows that we will continue to need his transforming grace until sin is no more. We will continue to need his intervention until we have been completely formed into the likeness of Jesus. We will continue to need the forgiving, enabling, transforming power of his grace until every thought and desire of our hearts is pleasing in his sight. We will continue to need his deliverance and protection as long as we are still susceptible to the seductive voices of temptation that are all around us in this fallen world. Our Savior loves us enough to continue to be dissatisfied even in those moments when we are all too satisfied. He will not abandon the work of his hands. He will not turn from his grace. He will not forsake his saving zeal. He will not relent until his grace has done everything it can do in each one of his children.

So you’ll find yourself in situations you do not like. You’ll find yourself having to deal with things you didn’t plan. You’ll find yourself dealing with trouble you never thought would enter your door. You’ll face the unplanned, the unexpected, and the unwanted. The reason you will is because your Lord will be using all these hard and uncomfortable moments to wrench you out of your satisfaction, to cause you to esteem his redemption and to create heart-and-life change that will not be created any other way. Your Lord pries open your hands and takes away your crutches and distractions. He exposes your weaknesses so that you will cry out for what he knows you need, but what you have been willing to live without.

So be thankful for all that grace has done for you, but be dissatisfied. Don’t quit before grace has completed its work. Cry out for more rescue, transformation, and deliverance. And be grateful that your Savior continues to work even in those moments when you don’t value the work that you so desperately need.

For further study and encouragement: Philippians 1:3–11