“...We have seen His glory the glory of the one and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (1 John 1:14)
Grace for some reason has been on my heart quite a lot lately. It seems most of us can come up with an intellectual definition of grace but do we have a revelation of this grace that came through Christ. Intellectually we would say something like...”getting what we don’t deserve” defines grace. There is truth upon truth in that statement but living that to its fullest is another thing! Jesus came to us full of grace! There are two sides to this equation in wrestling with grace. On the one side is living a life leaning toward law and on the other side is the abuse of grace. Lately I have been reading Galatians and Paul’s view on the subject. He thrashes the thought of continuing in the law and exhorts his followers to embrace the idea of grace through faith. As a result of our grace not being perfect and still being people who are in process we quickly realize this is a life long journey of discovery. There is grace for this process! There are times when grace seems to be out of my grasp because of my deficit in understanding the depth of love from my Dad. This scenario is what propels me toward knowing Him more and more each day. Some days that pursuit is more alive than others.
“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 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. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God----and not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph. 2:6-9)
I vividly remember two moments in the last ten years when the incomparable riches of his grace was deeply needed and my pursuit of it wasn’t an option at least in my opinion. The first time was the day we lost all income and I had not a clue how we were going to make any payments going forward. Those were days when I would prayer walk everyday through our neighborhood in Mechanicsburg, Pa. and cry out one sentence...”Father please give me grace for my finances”. Was there a temptation to run around and tell everyone I knew about our situation?...YES! I instead found great comfort in crying out to my Dad for grace. Grace came in waves over the next year in the area of finances like I had never experienced before or since. There were more four and five figure checks handed to me in that season. It was pure crazy! I could only let tears well up in my eyes each time grace was poured out. You can go the route of calculating how you will pay your bills and make great effort but this was to be a profound demonstration to me of Dad’s grace.
The second time was when I received the phone call that I had cancer. Again I remember being drawn to my Dad’s grace when fear wanted to grip my thoughts as tightly as a Mom grabs their child’s arm when they are in trouble. It is amazing how quickly we run to our Dad in trial and tribulation to find the grace that fills Him! It was grace that would pull me through these dark days in my journey. In all honesty, there are still days where a war takes place in my thoughts to fully grab the grace over my health. This area more than any other is a huge challenge in my journey. GRACE IS SUFFICIENT even without medical insurance since leaving to come to South Africa. Was it foolish to leave the States with no Plan B? Some would say absolutely but I am learning Dad’s grace in immeasurable ways!
Paul says in Galatians 3: 3, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Quite the interesting thought for us to ponder! Grace has everything to do with the Spirit and human effort has everything to do with the law. Rest in the grace of the Father without trying so hard in your own effort to have enough finances or to have a healthy body. Honestly, it isn’t the American Christian way most of the time as many of us resort to helping God do His part. Grace... what a gift from our Dad! I implore you to walk in more and more grace on the journey! Hopefully will you not only receive grace but give grace away to others too! There is a great war taking place between the rest of grace and the turmoil of human effort. Please take a moment and ask yourself where you are in that great war. One focuses on Him and the other on you!
