Mercy and pardon are designed for, and bestowed upon, the greatest and vilest of sinners to enhance and raise the glory of free grace to the highest pitch. God picks out such sinners as you are, on purpose to illustrate the glory of his grace in and upon you: he knows that you, to whom so much is forgiven, will love much (Luke 7:47).
John Flavel, England's Duty, IV:154-5
Often some of us think that our faith serves just for the positive validation of who we are. We romanticize ourselves and ask God to affirm that. This is faith on a cul-de-sac. The graces we receive from God are graces we nurture in action to our loved ones, friends, even the guy on the street.
These graces do not orbit in heaven alone but in the life of the believer as well. This is the seed that grows in the barren soil of your heart. It agonizes to grow, almost prone to die for every break of dawn. But a skilled hand in God will make it grow and on the day of its fruit-bearing the Hand that nurtured it in its pain and adversity is the same Grace that will pluck the sweet fruit and give that grace to others.
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