There is a little book I love. I pick it up once a year and read through it. It is “The Valley of Vision.” [A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett]
I don’t just “read” those prayers, I “pray” the prayers of Thomas Shepard, Thomas Watson, John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, Charles Spurgeon and others. The prayers of those saints of God expand my vision and deepen my resolve to live the life Christ has called us to live.
A line in today’s prayer caught my attention. “Help me to be … a dispenser of grace as well as a partaker of it …. That the name of Jesus may be glorified in me and I in Him.”
A “dispenser of grace.”
In Matthew 10:1-10, Jesus called His 12 disciples. He gave them power to deliver and heal. Then He sent them out and commanded them to preach the Gospel, heal, cleanse, and deliver. They were to do this relying totally on the provision and power of God. He provides their motivation in Vs 8, “Freely you have received, [now] freely give.”
They were to be both “a dispenser of grace as well as a partaker of it.”
We have freely partaken of God’s grace … now we are to freely dispense it to others. In doing that the name of Jesus will be glorified. Amen and Amen
