May 7

“What is meant by growing in grace?...It is the unhindered, wondrous, boundless love of God, poured out on us in an infinite variety of ways, without stint or measure, not according to our deserving, but according to His measureless heart of love....In order to grow in grace, the soul must be planted in the very heart of divine love, enveloped by it, steeped in it.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 5/6, 7

To grow in grace isn’t something you do, it’s something that happens to you.  Grace, after all, is something that is given to us--it’s something we receive not something we earn.  Yet, when you think of growing we usually think of effort--the effort that goes into planting, watering, fertilizing something in order to get it to grow.  But I have plants in my garden that receive no attention from me at all.  They come back year after year with no watering or fertilizing by me.  They receive what they need from the sun and the rain and the decomposition of their own stems and leaves.  This must be what grace is like.  If we are “planted in the very heart of divine love,” we will receive all the nourishment we need to grow in grace.  It is here that we will experience love so that we can love.  We must stop all the effort because it leads us into an independence that will only serve to stunt our growth or even bring death.  Let us instead depend on God for all.

“But he gives more grace; therefore it says, ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’”  James 4:6