Rich in a Foreign Currency

If God were in competition with the world’s richest people—Bill Gates, Warren Buffet—it would be no competition at all. That is not a surprise to us. What would come as a surprise to us, however, is how God measures wealth. While the likes of Gates and Buffet (who are, together, worth almost $80 billion—yes, that’s an eight with ten zeros behind it) would, no doubt, measure their wealth in money, stocks, and other assets, God would come to the competition with a different currency to measure His wealth.

And Paul speaks of it in the book of Ephesians. Twice, He declares that God is “rich in grace” (1:7; 2:7) and in another place He says that He is “rich in mercy” (2:4). The Greek actually says that He has an “abundance” of mercy and grace—which tells me that if God has an abundance of something, He is not going to run out.

What is even more of a mystery is why you and I don’t take advantage of God’s surplus. The truth is, His grace and mercy can be the currency on which we can run our lives every day. You think Wall Street or the Federal Bank or the President of the United States determines the health of our economy? Think again. It’s all God’s grace and mercy.

But I have to be honest with you: as heart-warming as the thought is that God’s grace and mercy is in abundant supply, I, sadly, so rarely make a withdrawal from His heavenly ATM. Why? Because I have a hard time feeling my need. Maybe I’m the only one, but I feel pretty rich on my own most of the time. I feel pretty self-made.

Fortunately, every once in a while, God allows me to see my true state. And it is at those moments when I fully appreciate the fact that His ATM is always open. His bank account has no limits. It’s exhaustless.

So why not make a withdrawal today? After all, we are always living on God’s currency of grace whether we realize it or not.