But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6 NKJV) James calls our attention to the abundance and availability of the grace of God to aid Christians in this world filled with temptation and sin. God is overloaded with grace. You and I just don't know how gracious He is. He has an abundance of grace.
Grace has been defined as "unmerited favor," but I call it "love in action." God didn't save us by love. He gave His Son, and it is by His grace that we are saved. You may say, "Oh, I am so wrong on the inside, so sinful." Go to Him and tell Him you are wrong on the inside, and ask Him for grace to overcome it. He will give you the grace you need, for He has so much of it, and He is the living Christ interceding at God's right hand for you.
The story is told of a rich Christian who was very much interested in the welfare of a poor young man who was struggling financially. So the rich man sent to him an anonymous cash gift with a note that read: "This is yours, use it wisely, more to follow." In two weeks, the young man received another envelope containing money and the simple note: "More to follow." Every two weeks he received another envelope just like it. That's the way God supplies His grace: as it's needed, and there is always more to follow.
Now some may doubt the surplus of His grace. May I say to you, all the medicine in the world cannot cure the sick; the remedy must be taken. Likewise, God has the grace, my friend — lay hold of it! It is possible for a man to die of thirst with a pure spring of water right before him. He has to drink of it, he has to appropriate it, before it can save his life. You don't blame soap and water for the fact that there are dirty people in the world, do you? There is plenty of soap and water to clean you up, my friend. A great many folk blame God when He has more grace. The difficulty is that they have not appropriated the grace of God in their own lives.
—From J. Vernon McGee's Living By Faith ©2004
