Friday, April 17, 2020

Daily Ponderings: He Will Make Room

Romans 11:19
Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

He will make room for me where there is no room.

This is grace. This is also miracles and blessings.

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It occurs to me that I don't really know the difference between grace, miracles, and blessings, but after some pondering, I think they're all points on the spectrum of "divine assistance".

At one end are blessings. These are divine assistance you qualify for by your righteous living, which make your life better or easier, but which you probably wouldn't have felt anything missing had you not gotten them. Sometimes the blessing seems directly connected to the righteous living (like good health for obeying the Word of Wisdom), sometimes it seems more coincidental (like being a full tithe payer, and always seeming to be in the store when they're selling items you need at a stock-up price). My wife refers to the latter as "tender mercies".

In the middle are miracles, which are divine assistance you qualify for by your righteous living that seems instant, improbable, and immensely helpful, allowing you to escape a serious problem with only underwhelming consequences. They seem mostly to occur as way for God to make His power manifestly visible as a sign to his children to build their testimonies.

Grace is at the far end. It's divine assistance that you did nothing to deserve or qualify for, but which is given to you, regardless. Mostly this is used to describe the portion of our salvation provided by Christ and is contrasted to "works" which are never sufficient to save us.

So: blessings - tender mercies - miracles - grace

I think that's about right.

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