The Underground Work Of Grace

I love how God does His work quietly inside us.

"The house that King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high... When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built." - 1 Kings 6:2, 7 ESV

"Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" - Jeremiah 23:29 ESV

"if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." - 1 Peter 2:3-5 ESV

When people pick up the words of God and use them as a hammer everyone in earshot is disturbed by the noise. People feel beat up and get tired of living on a construction site where nothing is ever good enough.

Solomon was a wise king. He had the loud work done in secret.

There are moments when the Holy Spirit uses the word of God to break things up inside me and carve off my ego so that I will be the correct dimensions to slip right into place. But many times those are secret moments and not a spectacle with a crowd of witnesses.

"With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone." - Proverbs 25:15 ESV

The grace of God is a soft answer that does a powerful work inside a person and it does it without pounding them on the outside.

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." - 1 Corinthians 1:25 ESV

Foolish men think they must see sparks fly and a cloud of dust in order for something to happen. Usually it is the opposite. God does his spiritual work quietly on the inside through investment on the outside.

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