Choosing Grace

In thinking more about yesterday's post, I wanted to share one of the biggest stories of grace I know.

You see, there was this guy who thought he was doing what God wanted him to do.  He was going around, persecuting Christians because what they were teaching threatened everything he knew about God.  His name was greatly feared.  He later called himself the "chief" of sinners because of the many horrible things he had done.  It was that bad.

God, however, extended grace to this man and his life radically changed.  He went from being the guy who Christians feared to the guy who ended up writing a large portion of the New Testament of the Bible.  He went from being a persecutor of the church to being a faithful missionary, spreading the news about God's grace through Christ and building up the churches that he once sought to tear down.  You've probably heard of Paul, right?

Grace caused a radical change in his life and it can do the same in yours, if you choose to let it.  

If God's grace was big enough for Paul, it's big enough for you, too.  His grace, just like that, will allow the sins you've been carrying to be forgiven--totally taken off your record--and the Holy Spirit would like nothing more than to take up residence in your life, replacing the space that those sins used to occupy.  But you have to let Him in, in order for that to work.  You have to seek His grace and you have to seek out the Holy Spirit's presence by building and fostering a relationship with the Lord.  If you continue to live in sin, you don't give the Holy Spirit room to live, but if you're seeking the Lord through things like prayer and time in the Word, He and his grace can change your life in ways you can't even imagine.

I'm sure Paul had no idea that his experience with grace would turn him into a missionary for Christ whose influence is still so powerfully present today.  That is grace at work.

Galatians 5:22-23
But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Here there is no conflict with the law.  

Holy Spirit, you are welcome here!

This song is my prayer right now...

            ------------------------------------------------------  

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Is Grace Enough?

God's grace is what keeps the world going 'round, let's be honest.  The Bible tells us He's waiting to return for as long as possible, so that more people have the chance to receive his grace through Jesus. He's waiting for those who are still lost.  His waiting is showing love and mercy to those who haven't done anything to earn it.  His waiting is an act of grace.  The depths of his grace are unfathomable.

For those of us who have found Christ, He gives grace in abundance, as well.  He's there to love us no matter what and his forgiveness is always there, if we ask for it.

But does that grace have a limit?

Romans 6:1-2
Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

Part of becoming and being a Christian is dealing with the sin in our lives.  God is gracious to forgive when we ask, but it shouldn't be an habitual, ask-for-forgiveness-for-the-same-thing-every-night-because-it-makes-me-feel-better kinda deal.  Dealing with sin isn't just about confessing it and asking God's forgiveness, it's about making every effort to change.  Don't think you can fool God when you ask for his forgiveness with no intentions of trying to change.  He knows what's in your heart. Grace is something we don't deserve, but I don't ever want to be accused of trying to take advantage of it so that I can continue to let the sins that I struggle with control me.  

Last night, my family (yes, all five of us!) was blessed to get to go to a concert featuring Crowder, Capital Kings, and Ellie Holcomb.  Great, great music. Extraordinary beards. 

I hadn't been planning to attend or take the kids, so it was a nice surprise.  The concert was phenomenal, as I knew it would be. Ellie Holcomb shared some great songs full of scripture and wisdom.  As she was talking between songs, though, she said something along the lines of, "I'm a chronic worrier.  Yes, I disobey the Lord on a daily basis."  I appreciated her honesty and candor about it.  We worry all the time, even though we know we're not supposed to.  

I said it very clearly in a text to a friend today.  I was talking about my worries, especially the upcoming surgery for my husband next week and said, "There's a lot going on.  I know God's in control, but that doesn't mean that His plans are the same as mine.  His are always better in the long run...."  It's not that God's not in control that worries me.  My worries are more that God's plans might not be exactly what I think they should be.  

I can see very plainly that God's plans are always better than what my mind imagines, but it's always easier to see in hindsight.  As a challenge to all you chronic, God-disobeying worriers (sounds bad, doesn't it?), let's examine some of the lyrics of a well-known hymn:

from Count Your Blessings

Verse 1

When upon life's billows
You are tempest tossed
When you are discouraged
Thinking all is lost
Count your many blessings
Name them one by one
And it will surprise you
What the Lord hath done

Chorus 1

Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your blessings
See what God hath done
Count your blessings
Name them one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God hath done

Challenge:  Count your many blessings, see what God has done.  If you want some kind of reassurance of God's hand in your life, the best way to see it is by examining your life.  Seriously, think about it.  

Three of my biggest blessings are my children. Doctors told me it would probably be very difficult to get pregnant because of issues I have with my thyroid, so I spent a lot of time worrying about whether or not I'd be able to have any kids.  God has blessed us with three--one of which was a huge surprise and the other two weren't difficult to conceive.  It was a worry that now seems ridiculous.  

Last year, I was pregnant and we were in the middle of buying and selling houses.  We knew very clearly God told us to buy the house we were trying to buy, but as complication after complication arose, I worried and feared that we were going to end up without a place to live, in the middle of the winter, as I was nearing the end of my third pregnancy.  The timing wasn't what I wanted, but God pulled it all of in only a way that He could.  

If you're a prayer journal-er, flip back through it and look at the ways God has answered your prayers.  A lot of the things you were praying about that seemed like huge issues then, God answered and you now can look at it and think about how small and insignificant the issues seem.  

I know I sometimes rely on God's grace too much to forgive me for my worrying.  It's easy to make excuses and ignore the fact that it's a sin.  I am trying, though, through exercises like this, through people who help try to keep me accountable and through immersing myself more fully into the Word of God.  I don't ever want to let my heart think it can fool God.  I can't tell you the limitations of God's grace, but this is what I know:  Sin is sin, and I'm accountable for it.  I am very thankful for God's grace and forgiveness.  

Galatians 6:17 tells us our sinful nature is always battling with the Holy Spirit and that our "choices are never free from this conflict." It may always be a battle I face, but God is bigger than any of my problems.  I know it's not always easy--I'm preaching to the choir here--but, to quote another beloved hymn:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth
Will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace

Romans 6:1-2
Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?

God, thank you that your grace is enough for even me at my worst.  Please show me the times when I rely too fully on Your grace and not enough on the Holy Spirit to help me in my battles.  


                     ------------------------------------------------------  

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

The Beautiful Faces of Grace

Spent the day celebrating the upcoming arrival of one of my best friends' first baby, which reminded me of the saying you often see on a baby's picture: All God's grace in one sweet face. So I'm being sappy and sharing the faces of my beautiful babies with you. They give me the deepest insights into what God's grace for me looks like.

 

Some of their very first pictures. Such amazing grace God gives!

2 Corinthians 12:9
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

God, thank you for the beautiful image of your love and grace that we see in our love for our children.

                                    ------------------------------------------------------  

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Grace for tomorrow...

Food for thought...

and a slight excuse for a yet-to-be finished post and an 8 month old who's just finally settling down for the night. Totally weird occurrence in this house. Thankfully she was super happy! And much too cute...

It's much easier to have grace for a baby, right?! Anyhow, this is a great song. Take a few minutes to listen and focus on the words, even if you already know it.

Ephesians 2:4-9

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

God, thank you for the gift of your saving grace!

                                    ------------------------------------------------------  

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Gracious Conversations

It has taken me forever to write today.  I've written, erased, started over, rinsed and repeated a few times. It's a big task to write something you want to publish in a format like this.  You want it to be useful, to minister to those who read it, to be genuine, to inspire, to inform, to educate...

I want what I write to come from God's inspiration and not just from the cavern of my own head. When the words don't flow from my heart to my fingertips quickly, I feel like it's because there is something different that needs said or that I need to wait for God to write it on my heart first.  Today is proof of that.  Everything that I've been mulling over and jotting down today, we discussed at my small group tonight.  Now I have even more to think about, so I saved what I wrote and will see if it leads me anywhere tomorrow.  I just don't want to put something out there that isn't ready because it isn't everything that it needs to be.

And as I began thinking about that and what a struggle writing was today, Colossians 4:6 came to mind.  Here it is in context:

Colossians 4:2-6
Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

It puts into words the way I feel about my writing.  I pray that God uses this as a door for me to share His message, and I want to be sure that I do it clearly, effectively and with grace--making the most of every opportunity.  Ironically, I don't need to write it if it's not full of grace, since that's what this 31 day series is about.  :)  

Thinking more on this, though, it's convicting me.  If I'm this careful about what I'm writing because someone might read it and be compelled to draw closer to the Lord, why am I not as careful every other time that I open my mouth?  If my writing might turn people off, won't my speech do the same?  Of course it will, but it's far easier to control what gets published to the internet versus taming my literal tongue.

James 1:26
If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.

It's a pretty sobering thought.  If you're a little to slow to listen and quick to speak, as I often am, I encourage you to read the book of James.  It speaks to my life every time I read it, and I'm guessing it will challenge you, too.  I'm thinking it's time for me to re-read it, as well.  I want my real-life, in-person conversations to be as gracious and as seasoned with God's truth and love as I hope my writing here is.  Very thankful for God's grace for my shortcomings!  Big thoughts to end the night on!

James 1:19
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry

God, help us to tame our tongues so that our words will be gracious and effective for your Kingdom!  

                                ------------------------------------------------------  

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Grace for Imperfect People

Having one of those days when I'm struggling.  Feeling I don't even know what. Blah.  Confusion. Disappointment.  It's one of those dark days.  I feel completely content and trusting in God, but not so much in man.  It's easy to be disappointed in other people.  It's easy to be convinced that everything they do that drives you crazy and makes you mad is done intentionally just to drive you crazy. It's easier to assume someone's motives are the worst, than find out what's really driving them.  Dealing with other people can be difficult.  Nope.  Dealing with other people IS difficult.

This is where grace has to enter the picture if we're going to do the whole "Love thy neighbor" thing. We have to show love and mercy even when we don't think others deserve it.  For one thing, we don't know their hearts and motivations enough to know why they do what they do.  We don't always know the struggles they're dealing with in their lives that cause them to act in ways we don't approve. We don't always see people for who they really are.  Sinners.  Imperfect people.  People just-like-us who need grace.  We're not perfect and we expect grace from others when we screw up. We don't just expect grace, we need grace. We need it from God and we need it from others.  But we have to give it, as well.

Check out this tweet from earlier today:

Louie Giglio ‏@louiegiglio  22m

22 minutes ago

Nothing is more humbling to me than the daily grace and mercy of God.

That's the truth of the matter. The amount of grace and mercy God gives me is profoundly huge. I can't help but be humbled when I think about it. The problem is that I need to re-train my mind to think about others in the light of God's grace for me. It's a lot harder to judge, be mad, be frustrated, be disappointed, or whatever you're feeling when you're coming from a place of humility. And don't we want to be in a position of humility?

James 4:6b-8a

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

God, help us to be humbled by your marvelous grace so that we can freely give grace to others.

                           ------------------------------------------------------  

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Grace for ME

I don't know if it's just the way I was made or if it's just human nature, but I am my own biggest critic.  I can tear myself down faster than anyone.  I can't live up to my own standards most of the time, and I then wallow in this pathetic, self-imposed guilt.  Does this sound familiar to anyone else?  The guilt comes in all different forms, whether it's that I'm failing as a mother and wife or that I'm simply not doing enough for God.  I make myself feel guilty all-the-time, but it's almost always guilt based on my standards--not God's.  

Today in my reading, I was studying the book of Galatians.  It's all stuff I've read countless times before, but I immediately started crying and feeling overwhelmed with guilt.  The Word was convicting in a new way.  I was reading in chapter 5 where Paul talks about all these various sins that will keep us from Heaven.  It's a list with a lot of heavy, deep, talked-about-in-church-a-lot sins, but it also has a list of what are everyday kinds of sin in my life.  He lists idolatry, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfish ambition, and envy, among all the others. Idolatry doesn't just mean that you shouldn't bow down to carved statues and tiny little idols, it means "the immoderate attachment or devotion to something," according to my buddy Webster.  Do you know what that means?  It means I'm guilty of idolatry anytime I let something in my life bump God out of that #1 spot.  I can treat my family, my social life, my TV shows, my anything as an idol when I let it become what steals my devotion.  Am I ever hostile?  Yes.  Do I ever have quarrels with others? Yes.  Am I jealous or angry or selfish or envious?  Yes. < Insert terribly guilty feelings here. > It hit me hard.

Paul says, "...anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God."  That's heavy.  It's especially heavy because these aren't always things that I take control of in my life.  Sometimes, I let these things control me.  I stopped and prayed that God would forgive me and convict me when I behave like this, and that He would help me change.  It felt good to cry out to God and to really feel like He was speaking to me through my reading today.

I continued to feel guilty, though.  How do I let myself live like this?  God deserves so much more from me.  I've been a Christian for far too long to still be acting like this.  I was letting the guilt get to me.  It wasn't a healthy guilt.  I'd already confessed my sin and asked for forgiveness.  God was good with that.  His grace had already covered it.

I realized that God's grace may have already covered it, but I wasn't giving myself any grace.  I can't just give grace to others, I have to be able to give it to myself.  This cycle of self-imposed guilt isn't healthy.  It gets me focused on me.  It gives me a bad attitude that can make me fight with my husband, be un-loving towards my kids or be envious of some other person who I think clearly has it all together.  It's not what God wants for me.  He gave me grace.  I need to give some to myself.  If God can forgive me, I can forgive me, too.

Galatians 5:1 says, "So Christ has really set us free.  Now make sure you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law."  When I continue to live in guilt, long after God has forgiven me, I'm falling back into this slavery to the law.  Yes, the laws are good and necessary, but God's grace forgives me when I fail.  He gives me the grace to pick up myself up, try harder, and focus on what's most important.  Love.  Paul goes on to say in verse 6 that "What is important is faith expressing itself in love."

Do you need to give yourself some grace?  Do you hold onto guilt like I do?  The next time you're feeling like this, get down to the root of the problem--are you feeling guilty because there's a problem in your life that needs addressed or are you feeling guilty because you're not giving yourself grace in a situation where God already has? If Christ has truly set us free, we need to live in the freedom of His grace.

2 Corinthians 12:8-9
 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

God, help us to live in the freedom of your grace and not be bound by our own self-imposed guilt.



  
                                      ------------------------------------------------------  

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!

Irrational Grace

Grace.

We say "grace" before meals.  We sing about it in countless songs.  Who hasn't heard "Amazing Grace?"  We know we need grace, we struggle to give grace, but do we really know what grace is? Do we really know what grace should look like in our own lives?  It's a concept that just doesn't rationally make sense.  It's irrational.

Grace is defined as the love and mercy that God gives us--even though we don't deserve it and have done nothing to earn it--just because he wants us to have it.  Grace is something given to us that we haven't earned.  We live in a culture of entitlement where a lot of people think they deserve stuff they have done nothing to earn, but where we will rarely give to others unless we think they deserve something.  That is rational to us.  You get what you earn/deserve.

Case in point:  The guy that's always holding a sign begging for money down by Taco Bell.  Or maybe it's by Wal-mart or Starbucks for you.  God tells us to take care of those in need, but how often do we drive by him and think, He's at it again.  If only he'd spend this much time looking for a job.  Have we taken the time to figure out why he is in need?  Probably not.  We just assume he's looking for an easy hand-out.  That he's lazy.  But he doesn't deserve anything if he's not willing to work for it, right?  We're not so good at grace, so it's hard to understand how God can be so full of grace toward us.  

Grace is something that becomes more understandable as a parent, I think.  We want so much for our kids.  We want them to have the things they want.  We want them to be able to live safely and comfortable.  We want to pick them up when they fail and make everything right for them. We give them far more than they need because it makes us happy to see our kids happy.  It's even hard for us to take away the things they love as punishment because we want them to be happy. Especially as our kids are little, they rarely ever do anything that makes them earn the good things we give them. It would be irrational to think that they could earn all the things that we give them, let alone just the things they need.

To God, WE are those little kids.  We rarely ever do anything that makes us deserve any of the things He gives us.  We definitely are never perfect enough to earn the love, mercy and salvation He gives., but he continually gives it to us.  Continually.  Irrationally.  He wants so much for us.  When I think about that, I'm overwhelmed and I feel ashamed.  I don't often see myself extending that same grace to others in my own life.  When people screw up, I get mad and I'm not quick to forgive or show mercy.  When my husband annoys me, I'm quick to snap back, rather than show love and grace. When my kids disobey for the 97th time before 8 a.m., I'm just not very gracious  All of these situations can be handled with grace, even when hard conversations and correction needs to take place, but it's often just easier for me to fly off the handle or let anger and bitterness fester inside me. I think with my rational mind about grace, but I need to give grace in irrational doses.

Why show irrational grace to others?  Because our lives are to look like Christ's.  We can't look like Christ if we don't also have His irrational grace for others and for ourselves.  Thankfully, even though this is a struggle I'm sure we all have, God's grace is still there to irrationally offer us that love and mercy.

Ephesians 5:1-2
Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.


God, help us to see our world through the eyes of your irrational grace!



                                 ------------------------------------------------------

As part of a 31 Day blogging challenge, I will be posting every day in October.  The link on the left will get you to the home page for this series, where you can find all the posts written so far. Don't forget you can Subscribe to get posts sent to you by email. (There is a simple form towards the top on the right where you can do this.)  Thanks for reading!

Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and questions!