Dear Trekker,

This time of the month, I am somewhat frantically (I confess) praying, “Lord, what do you want me to write this month,” as multiple issues are usually swimming about in my mind and spirit as possible choices. As I was approaching our evening bedtime abbreviated concert for friend wife (I’ve explained our nightly bedtime routine previously – see MEN, August, 2019), Barbara stuck a small sheet in my hand and said, “Sing this to me!” The title is, He Giveth More Grace. Here is the complete poem by Annie Johnson Flint, which I had known through my mother, who loved Flint’s poems.

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added affliction He addeth His mercy;
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limit; His grace has no measure.
His pow’r has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

I didn’t remember hearing the poem set to music until I heard Ben Markley, well-known Christian recording artist 35 years ago, (with whom I had a personal connection) who popularized it in the 1980’s. The third stanza is not a part of his version, and the fourth stanza is generally used as a chorus. Nuff of the technical side.

I had been wrestling with writing more about the COVID-19 crisis (again) and the unrest, continuing outbreak of violence and rioting in our country. But the Lord impressed upon me instantly I was to write on the theme: He Giveth More Grace. But there is a connection with the coronavirus.

(Background) – A couple of generations back, when I was in college, I discovered J.B. Phillips. He was then a favorite Young Life author and Bible translator. His little book, Your God is Too Small, affected my thinking then and throughout my life as no other book, re: the sovereignty and power of God. Annie Johnson Flint (1866-1932), before Phillips time, and just passing into glory the year friend wife Barbara was born, treats the same theme, God’s benevolent sovereign love and grace, from a poetic standpoint vs. the apologetic by Phillips. Nuff again.

So trekker, I guess I am writing this month about the mess our culture is in and how I as a trekker, and you as a trekker should view God’s role as He “maintains” His creation of earth and man within it. Message One seems to be when everything we might have thought was a given in this culture, a value, a principle, a foundation, God’s grace is greater than the disruption.

The burdens today are greater these last six months. (Annie Johnson Flint fought disabling severe arthritis in her hands virtually all her adult, single life. Orphaned as a young girl, she took the name Flint from her adoptive parents.) Yes, trekker, when we all have exhausted our store of endurance, our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Message two is God is in the giving business. We touched on this in last month’s MEN writing. His resources are unlimited and out of His abundance He yearns to share, starting with Himself (the Holy Spirit) in the life of the believer. Yes, He gives and gives again. God desires to give – we simply must ask to receive and then allow the blessings to cascade down upon us – which is Message Three!

A portion of Scripture is very applicable here. The Apostle Paul spoke of a personal malady repeatedly, that, as a physical limitation, he asked God to remove. Finally, God answers Paul in the second letter to the Corinthian Church: “But He (God) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I (Paul) will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” II Corinthians 12:9-10.

Trekker, is this promise for us? I believe it is. Amidst the weakness of the flesh to understand and combat forces of evil in nature, such as a new unheard of virus, God is standing by to give more grace. The Church visible today must recognize God is greater than any natural (or unnatural) catastrophe, is desirous once again to bestow grace upon His people, and all we have to do is ask!  COVID-19 should bring the “holy catholic” Church to its knees. Have we a greater resource than God? The answer is not big government! It is a BIG God – who giveth more grace!

I recall one of my Bible professors in college saying that without God’s grace granted upon his creation, the world could be destroyed in a nanosecond because of sin and separation from God. God is always using what is outside our control to call us back to Himself. That is a profound manifestation of grace. John 16:33 comes to mind once again… “In the world you will have tribulation, but cheer up. I have overcome the world.” Our lot via His grace in a troubled world is peace, not fear, trekker! Let’s let it settle over us!

Your friend,

Jim Meredith