Grace Upon Grace

October 21, 2016 John 1:16 says, "From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace." Sometimes we act as if God were some sort of divine miser, parcelling out his gifts and goodness in parsimoniousness. This is often evidenced by our prayers, in which we ask for far less than he is willing to give. We ask for small, personal tokens of his goodness, things like safety, health, financial well-being, when he is ready to give us that and far more. We neglect to ask for wisdom to live, for righteousness and expansive forgiveness; we forget to ask for the fullness of salvation to be bestowed on our neighbors, for the floodgates of holiness and revival to open upon our nation. Our God is so big, but our prayers are so small! I wonder what it would be like if we learned to ask according to the fullness we have received. What would it look like if we understood that we have not only been granted grace, but grace upon grace, that our forgiveness is not merely God wiping the slate clean, but removing the guilt and giving us his own holiness where before there was nothing but sickness and spiritual disease? I suspect most of us, myself especially, haven't begun to even scratch the surface of that it means to have been given multiplied grace from the very fullness of God himself. I am grateful tonight that such grace is not only available; it has already been given, in full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.