THE GOD OF ALL GRACE.

 

EVENING DEVOTION by James Smith

APRIL 1

 

1Peter 5:10

But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal

glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make

 you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

 
How sweet and refreshing are the views which Jehovah gives us of himself!
 
Too often we allow our minds to be led away from the spiritual representation of our God, and view him through some improper and injurious medium.
 
He is the God of all grace, but still he is the just God.
He is gracious naturally,
      sovereignly,
           infinitely, and
                 eternally.
 
He has riches of grace, --grace
   to quicken the dead,
   to pardon the guilty,
   to comfort the disconsolate,
   to strengthen the weak,
   to restore the wandering, and
   to save the lost.
 
In his dealings with his people, his grace is displayed.
 
How free, in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.
 
How seasonable, in the salvation of the dying robber on the cross.
 
How unexpected by Zaccheus, when called down from the sycamore.
 
But these are but samples, or patterns, intended to show us what the God of all grace can and will so.
 
Let us look to our God as infinitely gracious.
 
The extent, the greatness,
   the riches,
       the freedom of his grace,
           is displayed in the undeserving,
               in the ill-deserving.
 
Let this check our fears.
 
Let us spur us on to diligence.
 
It calls for confidence, gratitude, and consecration from us.
 

Great God, to us thy grace afford,

That far from thee we ne’er may rove,

Our guard-the presence of the Lord,

Our joy-the sense of pardoning love.

 
James Smith