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Day 12 of 30 · Week 2 · Turning Away from Sin

Day 12 — Turning Away from Sin

“Now to Him Who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus.”

For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people as His own, eager to do what is good.

Say these things. Exhort and correct with all authority. Let no one look down on you.

Ephesians 3:20; 2 Titus 2:11–15

Assignment: Written Reflection

What are ways that you have been unfaithful to God and need to be reconciled with Jesus?

What are ways that you still struggle to comply with God’s expectations for your life?

Evening Prayer

The Five Effects of Grace

Nancy Ward

St. Thomas Aquinas gives us five effects of grace:

  1. Grace heals our soul. “Grace is a glow of soul, a real quality, like beauty of body. Grace is nature’s perfection,” he writes.
  2. Grace gives us the desire to do good. “Grace responds to the deepest yearnings of human freedom” (CCC 2022), which makes us aware of our own purpose and compels us toward total self-fulfillment. Jesus pours out His grace, giving us the power to choose to do good, to choose to be free, to choose to fulfill our destiny as children of God.
  3. Grace works effectively through us to carry out good. “Grace is a participation in the life of God” (CCC 1997). When we live a life of grace we live for God as we fulfill our unique purpose in the Kingdom. We eagerly receive what we can never deserve but what He graciously allows us to take part in: the life of God. That power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.
  4. Grace gives us staying power to keep going. With grace comes courage, resilience, and resoluteness despite our fragility, weakness, and sin. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (1 Cor 12:9).
  5. Grace enables us to break through to glory. St. Thomas writes, “Grace is in the soul’s substance, granting a new kind of spiritual being, rendering it like God and a partaker of the divine nature.” The truest sign of grace in us is our willing dependence on God. Our surrender to His will is the best way to glorify Him.

newevangelizers.com/blog/2016/03/01/five-effects-grace/

The Five Obstacles to Grace

Jeff Cavins

Obstacle 1: Lack of Knowledge

Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed because of a lack of knowledge.”

Obstacle 2: Traditions and Ruts

Matthew 15:6 “. . .you nullify the Word of God for the sake of your traditions.”

In other words, you do what you do just because that’s the way it has always been done. You don’t question your life. A man once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

Obstacle 3: Disobedience

Hebrews 4:6–7 ” Since therefore it remains open for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he sets a certain day, ‘today’ saying through David much later, in the words already quoted, ‘Today, if you hearHis voice, do not harden your hearts.’” 2 Peter 2:19–22 “They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity–for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them, the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit” and “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

Obstacle 4: Time/Distractions

Ephesians 5:15 “Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” Obstacle 5: Pride

Proverbs 29:23 “A man’s pride brings him low.”

Galatians 3:1–3 “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”

media.ascensionpress.com/podcast/5-obstacles-to-grace/

Summary of Key Concepts

Questions to Consider

  1. How can you gain knowledge of bringing Christ’s grace into your life? Who or what would be able to help you do that?
  2. 2. What distractions are most noticeably keeping you from living a life of grace? What are you willing to do to keep them to a minimum in your daily life?
  3. 3. No one is able to live a perfect grace-filled live by his/her own efforts. Have you surrendered your helplessness to God with humility and trust?