How the Characteristics of Grace Appear
We don’t pump harder to be godly—we lower our hearts in trust and draw from God's grace already flowing within.
Devotional Credit: Day by Day by Grace
Photo Credit: Unsplash
Today’s reading by Bob Hoekstra reveals the heart of new covenant living: a life that draws its sufficiency entirely from God, not self. The devotional reflects on several beautiful traits that are meant to grow in the life of the believer—triumph, godly fragrance, sincerity, and being a living letter of Christ. But rather than prescribing a method of self-improvement, Bob reaffirms what Paul makes clear: Who is sufficient for these things? Not us. Only God.
We are reminded that these qualities of grace emerge not from striving, but from trusting. God’s sufficiency is not granted to the self-confident, but to those who walk in humble dependency on the indwelling Christ. The new covenant does not rest on what we can produce, but on what God has promised to write upon our hearts and minds.
We do not possess godly character because we’ve built it, earned it, or learned it—we display it because Christ lives in us, and grace flows as we walk by faith. This is why Paul speaks not of being self-made servants, but sufficient ministers of the new covenant. Our adequacy is not from ourselves—it is God’s doing. And because it is God’s doing, we can live in both rest and expectancy.
Personalized Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture
Your sufficiency is not from yourself, nor is your calling dependent on your qualifications. I have made you sufficient in Christ. You are a minister of the new covenant, not of the letter that brings death, but of the Spirit who gives life.
Do not look within for strength, for nothing in your old self can produce what I desire. But I have placed My life within you. Trust through Christ toward Me, and you will find My grace flowing freely. You are not sufficient to think or act as from yourself, but I am your sufficiency.
As you abide in Me, I write My desires on your heart. I inscribe My ways upon your mind. I form Christ in you—not by effort, but by grace. When you walk in humility, My grace abounds. When you look to Jesus in faith, grace flows to you and through you.
You stand in My grace. You walk by faith. And day by day, I make visible in you what I have placed in you.
(Scriptures: 2 Corinthians 3:4–6; Jeremiah 31:31, 33; James 4:6; Romans 5:2)
Real-Life Analogy
Have you ever tried to draw water from a well that's run dry? No matter how much you crank the handle, the bucket comes up empty. But when the water table rises—when a fresh source feeds the well—you don’t need to pump harder. You simply lower the bucket and draw up what’s already flowing beneath.
The grace that produces godly character works the same way. It doesn’t come from pumping harder in your flesh. It comes from yielding—lowering your soul in trust—and letting God’s sufficiency rise to the surface. The supply is already there.
Prayer of Confidence
Father, thank You that I am not left to scrape together a spiritual life from my own resources. You have made me sufficient in Christ. I stand today not as a self-made disciple but as a vessel of Your grace. I trust that what You are writing on my heart will flow outward in my life. I rest in Your adequacy and walk forward by faith, confident that You are forming in me the fragrance and fruit of Jesus. May Your life be seen through mine today.