June 1

Thoughts on Prevenient Grace              “The Light is ON for You”

It’s about love, love, love.  It’s about love.

Love is stronger than any power and weaker than any resistance.

It’s not only what we do – it is the way we do it. 

Love is first.  Not sin.  Not judgment.  Not limitation.  Love is first.  God’s arms are open wide.

You see, God is seeking you.  Even before you seek God, God searches you out. 

God has “unconditional positive regard” for you.  There is no hesitation on God’s part.  No assumption that you are on a “not going to make it” list.  God’s intention is for everyone to be saved.  God intends no one left behind.  The assumption that some are saved and some are damned from the beginning is not a Methodist belief.  The assumption that we are sinners who are always and irredeemably sinful is not Methodist.  Methodists believe that we are sinners who can be freed from the power of sin so that we are not irredeemably lost.  John Wesley believed that as we accept the grace of God in our lives, “sin remains but no longer reigns” in the Christian. 

For Methodists, grace is not limited.  It is offered to all.  It is free not only to some.  There are no exceptions.  God loved the world, and to that end finally Jesus died on a cross at Calvary.  So, Wesley believed that every person could heed the Gospel call.  He was especially mindful of those others passed by – the poor, the sick, the illiterate, the outcasts of society who felt unwanted and unloved by most church folk of his day.

My gracious master and my God, assist me to proclaim: to spread to all the earth abroad the honors of thy name.

May you know the power, peace and promise of God’s unconditional love for you!