My Grace is sufficient

This morning I was reading my daily devotional, and I couldn't do anything but sit and let the truth of what it was saying wash over me. It was talking about grace. This is something that we as believers in Christ know "much" about. We talk about grace almost daily. When someone is enduring a hardship we say things like "God will give you the grace to endure." Or we'll say things like "May his grace and peace go with you." Saying those things isn't bad. In fact, they are beautiful and powerful. But I wonder if when we speak of grace, we really grasp what we're saying. Do we really take the time to think of what grace is? What grace actually means? I will be the first to admit, I do not. In fact, I many times only allow myself to experience the cheap sense of grace, because really true grace hurts. You may be wondering why I said that, or you may think i'm crazy. Let me explain a little bit. In my devotional this morning, it was talking about how many times we as believers think that we need to "earn" grace. Meaning we try to live our lives as perfectly as we can, only letting God help us when we think we deserve it. But the interesting thing is that when we believe we've "earned" it, it's really not grace. It's a reward, not an undeserved gift. That struck me so deeply because I know that I absolutely do that. I am always striving to better myself thinking it will make God love me more. Thinking that the few times I have "blunders," i'm covered because i've "earned" that grace.


I was talking with a friend a few nights ago, and we were talking about how it is so hard to try and live up to expectations. Whether those be expectations we put on ourselves or ones put on us by other people. We talked about how it's so easy to constantly compare ourselves to other people thinking that they have everything together, while we don't really have any of it together. We talked about some different things we've gone through and I began to think about something. The irony of our conversation was that it doesn't matter who you talked to, if everyone was being honest, they would admit that something in their life wasn't together. We are, afterall fallen. But what struck me more about our conversation was this. The hardships and imperfections that we face aren't in vain. They hurt to endure, and most of the time we would never wish to relive them. But I began to realize that those times in my life that were the most painful, are probably the only times I have ever allowed true grace into my life. Think again about WHAT grace is...it's a free gift that's undeserved. It HURTS to recieve it. In all honesty, none of us do anything to really deserve it...but we only allow ourselves to feel it when we have no where else to turn. I am realizing more and more that I am a person with tremendous faults. And while I think it IS important to try and live my life honoring God, and serving him, I think it's also important to truly remember that there isn't a single thing I can say or do to deserve his unfailing love and grace. So I guess I would just like to encourage everyone to try and stop striving for perfection. Instead, maybe realize that in this life we are going to make mistakes. That's inevitable. But truly allow yourself to experience the grace of our incredible Savior. Maybe then, when we say things like "His grace is sufficient for you," we might actually believe what we're saying. John 16:33 "I have told you these things so that you may have peace.In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Trust

I never get over how life is constantly teaching me new things. Rather, I can never get over how Jesus Christ teaches me new things through this life. Over the past few weeks, i've been faced with thoughts and ideas that all string together. This has made me come to a conclusion, that is really a beginning to the unveiling of a new truth. I don't think I could ever reach the full conclusion, nor would I ever want to. The mystery of life, love, and ultimately salvation, would be immensely disatisfying if we had all the answers. Yet I always find myself longing to have the answers anyway. I am so terrified that if I choose one thing, I could mess up everything else in my life. I hate living in that kind of fear. And deep down I know that I have nothing to fear because it was overcome by my Savior. And while I try to analyzie and figure out every possible obstacle in my life (whether I had no choice in it, or I created the obstacle myself), I still come to the conclusion that I would choose mystery over knowledge. That's the most exciting thing about serving Jesus, is that you never know what will happen next.

Sometimes I feel as though I get overly concerned about the timing of things in my life. It's like i've formed this giant time table of when things shold happeen, or when i'll reach a certain goal in discovering something about myself. Gosh, if my time table was right even once, I think life may be a little boring! But it always seems so hard to truly live in each moment. I tend to imagine what the future might be like, not stopping to remember that today is the future i'd always dreamed about.

Worry does nothing but create chaos. Whether it be in your heart, mind, or on the outside. I've not seen a single situation where worry benefits anybody. Belive me, I would know. Because I over-analyze absolutely everything, I find myself worrying about scenarios that don't actually exist. Just the "what if's." It drives me absolutely insane! And while I learn and grow from each of my freak outs, i've realized something so much bigger. Every time I worry, or stress over something, it gives me the opportunity to trust God a little bit more. I may not always understand, in fact, most of the time I don't. But if I start puting my hope in the Lord everytime i'm tempted to worry, not only will that fear subside, but I will grow deeper in my trust for my Savior. And isn't that what I should want? I've found that all the worry and the stress of the world will never go away. We wouldn't live on earth if that were the case. But I am truly starting to realize that it's who we look to in the stress that determines the outcome. Everyday people give us advice, their opionions, and thoughts on what they think is going to happen in your life. All of that added on to what you think creates tidal waves of craziness. But when I look to the Lord, everything else seems insignificant. I realize that he is the only thing that is ever constant. So yeah, I have decesions to make, and it's my job to be wise in the choices I make...but at the end of it all, if I am serving the One true God, my life will be beautiful. It might not ever seem like it to me, but he has promised it. Romans 8:28