husband's Wedding Anniversary from 2004. What an awesome thing to read of the precious gift of my now grown children. This time of year is always god to focus on memories that make you smile with love. It touched my heart to remember how much they love us. Remember how much God loves us and we can get through anything, in His love.
In
His Word #142
I
was given grace today. My children cleaned the house and yard as a gift to me
for my anniversary. What exactly is grace? How can I find it other than in my
own family?
Let’s
look—In His Word!
And
He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made
perfect in weakness." Therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in
distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2
Corinthians 12:9-10
Moreover,
the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign
through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans
5:20-21
My
children received my grace today because of what they did. I did not force them
to do all of their schoolwork today. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a slacker
when it comes to doing schoolwork, though at times I have to admit I would love
to be! I believe they have certain assigned work each day and generally make
them complete this work on schedule as well as in the time allowed. However
today I saw the work that they were doing prior to school, in order to please
me and save me work on this day. It was a gift from the hearts and minds of my
children. This gave me a blessing; it seemed as a sweet-smelling aroma was
offered up to me!
Okay, maybe to some of you that may
sound a bit cheesy, but I felt their love and it made me stop and think. If I
being human can feel such love at such a small task; then how much more does my
God feel love when I do some small menial tasks that brings Him glory?
So then where was that thought on grace coming in? God’s grace is awesome! He
forgave us our sins so that we can go to heaven some day. But what is grace?
How come we get it? And for that matter how can we give it?
We are told to use Christ as a model.
Knowing that He gave us life, through His death on the cross we can see that we
achieved grace through a back door of sorts!
None of us deserves the Grace of God, not anymore than I deserve my children’s
blessings of scrubbing floors and tables this morning. Yet out of love for me
they, and God the Father have blessed me!
But what is grace?
Webster’s
International Dictionary tells me: grace is favor, mercy, divine mercy, to mark
with favor is to have grace.
So the grace of God would be divine
mercy, mercy being leniency, this means we get a lesser sentence or no sentence
for our crimes! God’s grace is full of patience, because He loves us. When I
hear my children misbehaving it causes an extreme sadness in my heart.
Sometimes I do not want to admit they are my children because it is so obvious
that they do not want to obey me!
Then there are times like this morning,
when out of the blue they will show me mercy and cause me to want to give them
grace back. God is no different, I think
that when He sees us making foolish choices, or disobeying His rules, or
slacking on our chores, that He feels that same sadness of the heart.
Yet
because He loves me, He gives me grace and forgives me. Just as I do with my
children, when they disobey I give them punishment but also temper that with
mercy and love. Though my flesh may want to ground them for life, just as God’s
anger lasts for a moment so does mine.
With
all that the Israelites did to and in front of God I am certain that He would
have grounded them for life many times over! And yet even in the book of Exodus
we find that He had mercy on these people whom He calls a “stiff necked”
people! They had been given all kinds of mercy and grace, and yet they and
their children went on to sin again and again. God was reminded by Moses and
other men and women of God of His goodness, of His mercy and of His love
towards His people. In all of these times He kindled his anger, and tempered it
with mercy. When He was reminded of His promises, He kept His word. We learned
this through the troubles and trials we read about in the Bible, that God is a
God of His Word!
Grace
is none other than this; God’s –Righteous-Awesome-Caring-Evidence!
Christ
being our model, He gave Himself for all of us. Doing what He would rather not
have had to do; He drank of the cup the Father gave Him on our behalf.
That
is God’s Righteousness, and it is Awesome! He did and does so much on our
behalf, making our path straight when we trust Him to do so. Giving us life
when we would have chosen death and destruction if left on our own! Oh, but for
the Grace of God…where would you be?
Because
he Cares for us so much that He died
for us, and forgave and forgives us for all the wrong we do when all we have to
do is ask for Him to. That is the Evidence!
All
we have to do is make the choice to follow His example, and we will have His
grace and mercy bestowed upon us! The Word of God says that there is no greater
gift than to lay down one’s life for a friend. When my children too the time
that they would have been playing before school, or reading a favorite book, or
coloring, and used it to bless me instead of themselves. That showed me that
they loved me enough to lay down their wants and their fun, for my joy!
Some may think it’s a small time visual, but even though they have since been their normal arguing, teasing selves as children will be; I felt that moment of love this morning, that moment of grace. If my children can make me smile in such a small way, I wonder what I can do today to please my Lord?
Maybe
I can give Him back a little grace that He gave me next time I feel that He is
taking too long to do something I asked Him to do? Maybe I can learn to give
other people the grace I receive from my Lord?
Perhaps
that will bring Him the joy that I felt in my heart when my children blessed
me?
Dear
heavenly Father, thank you for loving me so much! Thank you for your grace and
mercy that you give to me each day!
Thank you for your forgiveness and that you forgave me and continue to
do so as I forget to mind the rules. Thank you for working on me to make me
more like Jesus every day… In Jesus name, amen.
Monday: Romans 4:13-25, Tuesday: 2 Corinthians 1: 12-14, Wednesday: 2 Corinthians 4 (all)Thursday: Romans 12 (all) Friday: Colossians 3:1 through 4: -6 Galatians 1&2 (all)
***If
for any reason you choose ever not to receive this devotion again please
remember that all it takes is replying with a “Please remove me from this
list.” I do ask that if there is a problem with anything I write for you to
feel free to write me back and let me know what the problem was, that we might
go over it together and seek the truth in love.
In
His love,
Teresa M. Wilson