Sweet and Strong

I'm currently in the process of reading The Spirit, The Church and The World by John Stott.  A couple of weeks ago I was stopped by one line.  By the way, isn't it funny how people can write whole chapter and books or preach whole sermons and it's a sentence that slays us in our tracks.

Stott, in his chapter "Stephen the Martyr", spends a moment on two words that describe Stephen.

"Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people."  Acts 6:8

Stott takes a moment to point out what a stunning combination grace and power are for a man to possess.  He says that G. Campbell Morgan explains grace and power as "sweetness and strength... merged in one personality".

Could those words describe you as a Christian?  Would someone describe you as a woman full of God's grace and power?  Could your children describe you as a man full of sweetness and strength?

As I pondered God's grace and power filling a person, I wondered how I might do that better.  Too many times we may have one and not the other or none.  I especially wondered how I might put those characteristics into practice so that my children will one day say that of me.

Strength is wrapped up in the boldness of knowing the truth yet sweetness is dressed in the ability to not have to win every argument.  Grace makes a man or woman approachable by all and power makes that man or woman someone people desire to be influenced by.  It would be an amazing thing to be able to wield great power and amazing graciousness.  It is exactly a way one could describe Jesus as well. 

Matt Ray

A Man Full of God's Grace and Power

Now, that makes a nice epitaph.  The trick now is to live a life worthy of that description.  And living a life worthy of that description can only be accomplished by drinking the sap of the Vine that is the source of God's grace and power. 

Go live in a way that exudes God's grace and power today.