The Kindness of a King

by Pastor Gary Ritchie of One Way Ministries

Recently, I had the opportunity to bring a message on prevenient grace. That term is one that many people may not know. Probably only seasoned church people understand the term. Prevenient Grace basically means that God is always present in our lives.

The term prevenient comes from the Latin word praevenire – “to come before”. Grace comes before we even

desire it or know about it.

Romans 5:8 tells us, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

A few weeks ago in our Wednesday night Bible Study, the Lord highlighted a scripture that I must have skimmed over many times.

Ephesians 1: 3  All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.  4  Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.  5  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. That may be the best definition of prevenient grace I could find! In short, grace was given to us even before we were born.

There is a great story in the Bible about a young man by the name of Mephibosheth (pronounced muh-fi-buh-sheth). He was the grandson of the first King of Israel, Saul. He was the son of David’s best friend, Jonathon. Scripture tells us that both Jonathon and King Saul had died in battle and a crippled Mephibosheth found himself in a place called Lodebar meaning “no pasture.” Basically Mephibosheth found himself living in the ghetto.

Mephibosheth, a part of the royal family was now hiding out for his life as this family line was no longer in succession. The Bible tells us that David sought out Mephibosheth. Not because of anything he had to offer, but because of his father. Grace was granted to Mephibosheth even before Mephibosheth was born – all because of the father.

Grace seeks us where we are at. It may have appeared that Mephibosheth had been forgotten, but the King remembered him. Helpless without hope, damaged goods from the age of 5, Mephibosheth found favor from the King. King David granted mercy instead of justice. Mephibosheth had nothing to offer; he could not even serve in David’s household. Mephibosheth’s name painted a pretty bleak picture of his future as it meant, “out of the mouth of shame.” But grace brings us into the King’s presence. Mephibosheth and his entire household were invited to the King’s palace to live the rest of their lives. He was basically adopted into the King’s family. Like Mephibosheth, God brought us from a place of no pasture to the palace, from no pasture to his presence, and from a desert place to paradise.

Lastly, grace keeps us for the King’s return. Mephibosheth’s position was restored. All that his family owned was given back to him. He sat at the King’s table for the rest of his life and enjoyed access to ALL that belonged to the king. All of us can identify in the plight of Mephibosheth. For some of us, our situation may not be as desperate, but for many, it may be even worse. Whatever our situation, we are all broken, filled with sin, and need a King to rescue us. We have nothing to offer, yet because of grace, we are invited to the palace for the rest of our days.

God had a plan before the world was even formed to bring us into relationship with King Jesus. He rescued me at just the right time. Holy Spirit was seeking me out even before I knew I needed a Savior. That is the love of God so powerful and beautiful. Has he rescued you from Lodebar? If not yet, just know the King is coming to bring you into the palace to join all of the King’s kids.

Please share Pastor Gary's blog if it speaks to you! For more information on One Way Ministries, visit www.onewaydamascus.org