Measure of Faith

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“For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgement, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith,” (Romans 12:3 NASB, emphasis added).

     Recently, I’ve had the privilege to start doing research on Billy Graham. It’s for a project that I am doing on historical leaders and what they have contributed to the Christian faith. Amid that research, Billy Graham has quickly become a major inspiration to me. In fact, I was not sure where I was going next with this blog until I was blessed to hear a High School and a Middle School Youth Pastor discussing Romans 12:3-4 night before last. It was then that it occurred to me, why not keep on with Romans 12?

     What does that have to do with Billy Graham, you ask? Well, everything. To be 100%, it hit me two nights ago after sharing what I’d learned about Billy Graham backstage and then hearing the two Youth Pastor’s respective messages—Billy Graham is the epitome of Romans 12:3!

     In 1950, Graham began the Billy Graham Evangelical Association. By 2014, he had preached in front of 82,774,083 people! That is more than eight times the number of people in my state of Georgia! Over the course of his ministry, God led 4,563,436 people to Christ through Graham’s crusades! Essentially, all of Los Angeles!  Think about that. Four million+ to Christ! In Graham’s lifetime! Yet, by all accounts, Graham was a very humble and unassuming man, a dairy farm-boy from way back. How crazy is that? Of all the people in the world to be given over to arrogance, pride or vanity, the guy that God used to save four million + people could have been that guy! But, he wasn’t!

     As believer’s, we understand that the gift of grace that was given to us is the loving-kindness of coming to know and being able to have a relationship with Christ. Being able to accept salvation and have a connection to God is the greatest gift we could ever hope to have. He gave that to us out of His mercy. He did not have to. He chose to. Just as Christ chose to go to Calvary so that we could be welcomed into the Family. Ridiculous Grace!

     Think about this, too, how much grace did Paul feel God had shown him? I mean, he went from being a Pharisee, was probably at the gate when they stoned Stephen, and was killing Christians in God’s name; and then after Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus, he was willing to do whatever he had to do, tell anyone that would listen, face imprisonment and he even died for the grace he received through Christ. So, when Paul says, “For through the grace given to me…” I’d say he felt God had been incredibly graceful!

     In my opinion, it’s part of our spiritual service of worship to use our measure of faith to glorify God, as well as be humble in knowing that it’s by God and through God all of it is possible! Who comes to mind for you when you think about this passage? How may we implement this passage into our own lives? In what ways are we ensnared by arrogance, vanity and pride?

Until Next Time,
God Bless

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