StewardLife Lesson 39

A LITTLE STORY

Sitting at the lunch table I slowly stirred my iced tea. As I watched the ice cubes swirl around in the glass, I began to think how the process going on in the glass is like God's grace.

Physics (I know--it was your favorite class in school!) teaches that ice cubes don't make a drink cold. Only heat moves. This means that heat from the warm tea moves out of the tea to melt the ice, thus cooling the tea. The cold does not move from the ice to the tea.

INSIGHT OUT

Scripture tells you that you are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). As far as being able to warm up to God, you're cold as ice. In fact, you are absolutely cold.

Through His Holy Spirit God makes the move. He comes to you. His love begins to warm your cold heart. He thaws your spirit and its natural resistance to His grace. You become capable of receiving what He gives.

And when you are His child, He desires to do nothing else but to give--and give--and give. The miracle is, He has so much to give you that even coldness of heart can't stop His action. Someone once said, "No one can outgive God." For Christians who live the StewardLife, effectively managing every gift God gives by His grace--gifts both large and small--you can trust that God's giving will continue. He wants to demonstrate through you that He is a God of grace and blessing. He wants you to be His objective example to the world. So He keeps pumping in the heat.

EXERCISE

As the weather warms up, you'll be sipping more cool drinks. When the cold of the container hits your skin--or you hear or see the ice tumble into the glass--feel, see and hear with your spiritual senses. Remember the lesson of physics and apply it to your spiritual life: God keeps coming to you with great blessings. Try to identify when doubt, fear or outright rejection of what God has for you cools your heart. Then move quickly to bask in the Son--whose warmth restores you.