Published 25-08-16

By John Aldworth

Gen. 6:5-7-8: And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually… And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Judges 6:17-18: And he (Gideon) said unto Him (the Lord), If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign Thou talkest with me. Depart not hence I pray thee until I come unto Thee and bring forth my present and set it before Thee. Vs. 16: Surely I will be with thee.

Gen. 18:3 (Abraham): If I have no found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.

Exodus 33:13-14: (Moses speaking): I pray Thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may (continue to) find grace in thy sight. Vs. 14: (the Lord speaking) My presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest (i.e. peace).

Exodus 34:9:  If now I have found grace in thy sight O Lord, let my Lord, I pray Thee, go among us; for it is a stiff necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance

Exodus 33:16-17: For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight; is it not that Thou goest with us? And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.

Luke 1:30: And the angel said unto her, Fear not Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.

Acts 7: 46: (David) who found favour before God.

How do you know that you have found favour, found grace in the eyes of the Lord? Answer: Going by the experiences of David, Mary, Gideon, Moses and Abraham in the scriptures quoted above, you will find yourself lifted into a whole new and higher realm of spiritual being. This will occur because you will experience the FIVE Ps at work in your heart. What are the five Ps, you ask?

They are: PRAYER, PARDON, PURPOSE, PRESENCE and PEACE. Find them set out in the verses above.

First and foremost then when you find grace in the sight of the Lord it will bring you to prayer. You will find yourself praying as you have never prayed before. Notice how the first reaction of Moses, Abraham and Gideon was to pray. Notice also what each of these men prayed for. It was that the presence of the Lord in grace would remain with them.

The first lesson of grace then is to teach us to pray.  The second lesson is to teach us to pray for his presence. That is a real and ongoing experience of the closeness of the Lord. It is no coincidence that in his last prayer for Timothy in 2 Tim. 4:22 the Apostle Paul prays that the, ‘The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen’.

Is the Lord present with you and I as he was with Moses and Paul? If not, is it because we don’t daily ask Him to be with us. After all He promised he would be with us unto the end of the age. The Lord’s presence is so very important, however you discern it.

So important that Moses begged the Lord to ‘go among us’ to ‘go with us’.  Then he made his plea for the Lord to be with him and God’s people really personal. ‘If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence’ (Ex. 33:15). Moses wanted the Lord with him at all times to ‘shew me thy way’, to ensure that he, Moses, might continue to ‘find grace in thy sight’. Perhaps the question is, how often do you or I pray for a closer experience of the Lord being with us?

Like Moses we need to pray for his presence with us. And for his grace.  In fact our most important prayer to the Lord should be (and forgive me for paraphrasing the Lord’s Prayer): ‘Shew me today thy daily grace’.

Now granted, you and I certainly found grace in the eyes of the Lord when we were quickened and saved by grace. But that is not the be all and end all of the process. We need ongoing abundant grace to meet our needs every day.

More than that we need God’s grace renewed in us every day, indeed every hour. Why? Because it is grace that changes our hearts. As one commentator has rightly pointed out: When your heart meets the amazing grace of God, it is your heart that changes, not the grace of God.  That always stays the same.

If you are having trouble praying, or worse still, not praying at all, then the truth is that grace teaching is not working in you. For above all else grace teaches us to pray:

Col. 4:2 Continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. 1 Thess. 5:12: Pray without ceasing. Other scripture urges that we be ‘instant in 

Does that mean we should be praying non-stop 24/7? No but it does mean we should pray far more often than we do. Paul could make tents and pray at the same time. And we can also pray while we carry on doing whatever we have to do. Are you praying every day? Are you and I asking the Lord for his grace whenever there is need, whenever wrong attitudes arise within us? Did you pray today? How many times? If you and I didn’t we need to ask ourselves, why not?

Are we praying for the world and those in authority as the Apostle Paul taught us to? If not how do we expect the world to change? If we pray for God’s grace to impact the world it may lead to opportunities to share our faith. And praying publicly with and for others can and does bring about change.

Notice that in Col. 4:2 it’s not just a matter of praying but also of thanking God for all his grace and blessings. The more you thank the more you feel Him close to you, the more you thank the more grace changes you and meets all your needs.

And please, don’t pray without expecting an answer. That is doubting. We are not told to doubt but to watch. To watch means to expect and look for results in the things we ask for. For sure one of those results will be peace in our heart, knowing that in grace sooner or later we will most definitely have the things we ask for. This because God is faithful and is able to ‘do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think’ (Eph. 3:20).

As to the other Ps that come as a consequence of  finding grace in the eyes of the Lord, of course, we already have pardon because God hath already ‘forgiven us for Christ’s sake’. Furthermore we find peace when ‘by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving’ we let our requests be made known unto God’ (Phil. 4:6). Accordingly, we need ‘be careful for nothing’ because God will meet all needs and see us through whatever comes.

And as already discussed, if we ask Him for it we will experience his presence with us in many different ways.

What’s more through grace, and praying for more of it, we will find our purpose for Him in our lives. In this regard notice how Moses, Gideon and Abraham each found grace in the sight (and presence) of the Lord for a purpose. Moses was to take Israel to the Promised Land, Gideon was to free Israel from the Midianites and the Amalekites; Abraham was to be a blessing to all nations. God will also have a purpose and a calling for each one of us too.

May I ask, have you found grace in the eyes of the Lord? Is grace really working in your life through prayer? Have you found you purpose in life in Him?

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