Devotions with Pastor Jared

In the Church of the Nazarene’s Articles of Faith, Article VII speaks of Prevenient Grace (also called Preceding Grace). This doctrine teaches that there is a measure of God’s grace made available to all people, even before we have the desire to serve Him. Think about that for a minute. Before you had your first thought about God, before you first considered turning your life over to Him, God was showing you grace. As Romans 5:6-11 says:
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (ESV)
Remember that as we go through this time of discord and unrest that we were loved by God while still in our life of sin, and we are called to show love in the same way love was shown to us.

Pastor Jared

​Photo by Samuel McGarrigle on Unsplash