The Difference Between Access & Advantage

If you’re new around here, you might have missed the month-long “weekend” saga of me painting the CraigsList china cabinet… But now that the china cabinet and Sissy’s bedside table are painted, the garage is freed up again for me to actually park my car. And I am so glad because it has felt like a pain and an inconvenience to park on the drive.

But the funny thing is, as I came home yesterday evening after running a meal to a new friend, I parked my car on the drive as I’ve done for the past month, and I didn’t realize I hadn’t parked in the garage until I’d walked straight through the empty space and was almost all the way into the house.

Life in Christ can be like that. Some of us have relied on Jesus’s death and resurrection as payment for our sins, thereby gaining salvation and adoption into God’s family, but we’ve never taken hold of the blessings that walking with Jesus bring. We have access to His blessings, but we’re not taking advantage of them.

Here are a few possibilities (and inexhaustive list) of God’s blessings that you might want to consider…

1. Help. “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26).

2. Wisdom. “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

3. Hope. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

4. Faith. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

5. Love.“Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs” (Proverbs 10:12). “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).

6. Peace. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

7. Grace. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).

8. Forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).