Warranted Grace

[ChristRocket]

Do we warrant Grace?

From my understanding - grace is a free gift that we enter into more fully through prayer and sacrifice. We do not bend God’s will no matter how much we pray.

In other words, we don’t pray to receive. It’s not a give and take relationship such as - “I pray this many times or I obey these many commandments and God saves my loved one or gives me what I’m praying for.”

How does this reconcile with the idea of promises attributed to certain prayers/novenas?
And - how do we reconcile this with passages such as "“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

It would seem to me, slightly sacreligious to pray to God for superficial things such as a car - or even for someone’s health, because, either way, it will be God’s will and not our own in the end.

 

[JerryZ]

NO we can pray for material things, Jesus taught us this, remember “Give us our daily bread” is in the Lord’s prayer.

However we have to accept always God’s will and not our own.

We pray and be thankful if we receive AND be thankful also if we do not receive what we prayed for. Always understanding that if we did not get it, GOD has a better plan from us.

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[thenobes]

Do we warrant Grace?

From my understanding - grace is a free gift that we enter into more fully through prayer and sacrifice. We do not bend God’s will no matter how much we pray.

In other words, we don’t pray to receive. It’s not a give and take relationship such as - “I pray this many times or I obey these many commandments and God saves my loved one or gives me what I’m praying for.”

How does this reconcile with the idea of promises attributed to certain prayers/novenas?
And - how do we reconcile this with passages such as "“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

It would seem to me, slightly sacreligious to pray to God for superficial things such as a car - or even for someone’s health, because, either way, it will be God’s will and not our own in the end.

We can merit grace, but the merit is only a gift. So the giift of grace, in this case, depends upon God’s initial gift of the merit.

But it is all the grace of God.

peace,
steve

 

[By_His_Mercy]

Do we warrant Grace?

From my understanding - grace is a free gift that we enter into more fully through prayer and sacrifice. We do not bend God’s will no matter how much we pray.

In other words, we don’t pray to receive. It’s not a give and take relationship such as - “I pray this many times or I obey these many commandments and God saves my loved one or gives me what I’m praying for.”

How does this reconcile with the idea of promises attributed to certain prayers/novenas?
And - how do we reconcile this with passages such as "“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

It would seem to me, slightly sacreligious to pray to God for superficial things such as a car - or even for someone’s health, because, either way, it will be God’s will and not our own in the end.

Grace is totally a gift…in strict terms, unmerited. However, there is a pattern that grace begets grace. It’s “merited” in a derivative sense. Here are some examples:

1 Tim 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service,

Because of God’s prior grace, Paul was faithful…and as a result of his faithfulness (“because He considered Me faithful”), Paul gets more grace…strengthening and being put into service.

2 Pet 2:9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,

People are godly due to God’s grace in the first place, and God rescues the godly from temptation by more grace.

Matthew 25:21 "His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

By grace one is faithful in a few things…so they get more grace…they’re put in charge of many things.

Matthew 13:12 " For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.

One is given grace and therefore “has”, and because he “has” - he gets more.

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

The only way a person can be a righteous man is due to God’s grace…and as a result…their prayers accomplish much…more grace (answered prayer).

See the pattern?

 

[fhansen]

Do we warrant Grace?

From my understanding - grace is a free gift that we enter into more fully through prayer and sacrifice. We do not bend God’s will no matter how much we pray.

In other words, we don’t pray to receive. It’s not a give and take relationship such as - “I pray this many times or I obey these many commandments and God saves my loved one or gives me what I’m praying for.”

How does this reconcile with the idea of promises attributed to certain prayers/novenas?
And - how do we reconcile this with passages such as "“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

It would seem to me, slightly sacreligious to pray to God for superficial things such as a car - or even for someone’s health, because, either way, it will be God’s will and not our own in the end.

Read the parable of the Talents. It’s essentialy an explanation for how God gives His gifts-unmerited to begin with-but how, from there, were expected to “invest” them and cause them to grow.

 

[ChristRocket]

Thank you for the replies everyone.

The scripture verses are helpful;

Thank you FHansen for the reference to the Parable of Talents; I love the parable - thanks for bringing light to it.