Bill Knott’s GraceNotes: THE POWER TO CHANGE (June 18, 2021)

Do you want a better life—a life of clarity and purpose, filled with strength and kindness?

 

We seek it on the self-help shelves of every dying bookstore, or hope to find new fire in our Kindles. A thousand authors sell us dreams of well-toned self-improvement, built on buying exercise equipment, attending costly seminars, finding confidence at work, and getting what we want in marriage.

 

They all assert a common fallacy—that we have untapped power in us, power to reinvent ourselves; energy and perseverance that never have shown up before; and disciplines that usually last like water-only diets.

 

There’s just one power that changes from within. And it’s a force from outside us—the grace of Christ who says He comes to live in us. Paul the apostle said it well: “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). To believers Paul wrote: “I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph 3:16-17).

 

Grace gives us power to change and grow: we’re now connected to the One who made us; loves us; holds us; helps us.

 

Your better life awaits. So wait no longer.

 

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott