Grace

There is no way to fully convey the joy in my heart right now. The overwhelming feeling of love that is most definitely undeserved; especially when you add on the amazing blessings God bestows upon me each and everyday - even though I fail constantly.

As I said in a poem/song I wrote (that is probably not posted due to my insecurities & fears), God's grace absolutely and entirely astounds me. For Him to choose to have someone like me - to desire to have me - just blows my mind. I don't believe that we acknowledge this enough in our lives --- I know I don't. But talking and really thinking about it tonight pretty much blew my mind. To have the knowledge of who I was and see how He has moved in my life and changed me; to know the gospel and to know God and His perfectness and then reflect on the imperfectness of myself then and now - it is incomprehensible that He would choose a sinner like me. That He would grant to me salvation because He loves me; because He wants it. To think about the severity of John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life"- that God would give up His only Son - have Him tortured and crucified on the cross - have Him endure and suffer the wrath of God so that we may be shown grace to glorify Him. I don't know about you, but I know I don't always remember to acknowledge this. I don't always remember that everything I am today has been given to me because of God's grace and has been made possible because of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ long before I was born. As Christians we are nothing without Christ. We owe everything to God who planned everything from the beginning. We deserve death and yet He graciously gives us eternal life - and what do we do with that? Unfortunately, we don't always acknowledge Him in everything, although we should. We let the impact of His grace escape our minds while we indulge ourselves with things that are unimportant. God should be the center of everything. He comes first, because without Him we would be dead.

Eph 2 talks about being made alive in Christ... "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

It is all through God's grace, His ordination, His perfect plan that those of us who have received the gift of salvation have been saved. (That may have been slightly redundant.)

It's important to keep this in mind, keep it always in our heart and not lose sight of it. He has given me the greatest gift of all, it is my job now to ensure that I am constantly doing all things for His glory; that i never lose sight of this truth although the world will do it's best to try and knock me down. I cannot fully comprehend the enormity of His grace, the amount of love it entails is mind blowing. There is absolutely nothing on this earth that can compare to it. I’m not perfect, and there will be times when I completely fail at this; more times than I’d like to admit- BUT I know that Christ is with me, I know the Spirit will guide me; and when I get stubborn and start thinking that I can do this on my own – He’ll give me a reminder.

1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

It's the least we can do.