grace

Maybe there’s more to the story.

“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.  By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace to which others are just as entitled as we are.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Have you ever judged someone just by the way they look? Or how they worship? Or how they vote? Have you ever assumed motives behind what someone said and later found they meant it in an entirely different way? It’s so easy to label people or to misinterpret a comment, text, or post.

We too often assume we know more than we do about another person’s beliefs, motives, or actions. Maybe that’s why the Bible has many cautions about being quick to judge. Think of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. She desperately wanted children, but she and her husband had been unable to conceive. She was despondent and out of options. So, she went to the tabernacle to talk to God. She wept and prayed quietly – her lips were moving, but no sound came out.

Eli, the priest, saw this and was immediately filled with disgust. He assumed she had been at the festival and was drunk – in this holy place. So he confronted her, and she responded, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.” Eli quickly saw she was telling the truth and reversed his judgment, offering her a blessing instead of a rebuke.

Judging is so easy to do! Let’s be wary of it by committing to these attitudes instead:

  • Assume the best motives unless or until proven otherwise.
  • Don’t be too easily offended.
  • Sometimes just let it go.
  • Love and be loved.

Life will be better. God will be pleased.

“Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”- John 7:24

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Need grace?

“Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.” – John Stott

I’ve heard it said the Old Testament is about law and the New Testament is about grace. Funny, though, but the more I read the Old Testament, the more I see grace there, too. Example:

After King Hezekiah restored the temple (2 Chronicles 30), he called the people to come to celebrate Passover. It wasn’t in the right month. Would God allow that? There were those who had not properly consecrated themselves. What to do? God had struck people dead for what seemed like lesser offenses than these.

Hezekiah prayed, asking God to accept the people as they were – sinful, unsure, but willing to come back to him. God heard and answered that prayer, and a great celebration of Passover occurred with much repentance and rejoicing. God, in his amazing grace, opened the door to the undeserving, the unwashed, and the wayward. Maybe he saw their hearts. Maybe he just wanted them back. But it was pure grace.

This may be a foreshadowing of the grace that would come in Jesus – grace that would allow us to be made clean enough to approach him without ceremonial washings and ritual – just to come as we are with hearts full of repentance, offering him ourselves and our gifts, yielding to his will for our lives.

It also reminds me that we need to extend grace to others. We receive it freely from God’s hand. Why, then, would we withhold forgiveness or second chances or new starts to anyone around us? Knowing God, following Jesus – it’s all about grace!

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,” – 2 Timothy 1:9

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A Blessing for You

“However many blessings we expect from God, his infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and our thoughts.” – John Calvin

Need a blessing? Accept this prayer, written by a friend of mine, as a gift meant especially for you:

“Abba Father bless all your faithful children and keep them; make your face shine on them and be gracious to them; turn your face toward them and give them your peace.

May each of them always be aware of your presence, Lord, in their lives, leading, guiding and caring for them with your amazing love, grace, and mercy. May they always remember that greater is the one who is in them than the one who is in the world. Remind them that they are more than conquerors, that they are sons and daughters of the most high God, and that before the beginning of time, you, Lord, set in place plans to prosper them and not harm them, to give each of them hope and a future.

Lord, watch over them and their families and keep them from the temptations of the enemy. Lord, continue to challenge them, strengthening their faith and growing the fruit of the Spirit within them to overflowing, enabling each of them to show the love you have for them to all who cross their paths.

Father, fill them with your peace from the tops of their heads, to the ends of their fingers, to the bottom of their feet. May every step they take be filled with your blessing, may every challenge be filled with your mercy, and may every night be filled with your peaceful, restful, regenerating sleep. In the name of our savior Jesus Christ – Amen!”

I hope you can receive these words as promises of God. Now, let us go and bless someone else!

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” – Ephesians 1:3

*Thank you, Jane Sironen!

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Grace: Not Just a Little, but a Lot

“A man may have too much money, or too much honour, but he cannot have too much grace . . . Thou needest much; seek much, and have much.” – C. H. Spurgeon

God is overflowingly generous. In fact, in The Message, John 1:16 reads this way, “We all live off his generous abundance, gift after gift after gift.” We cannot count the number of gifts God gives us – and they keep coming.

John tells us “He gives the Spirit without measure” (John 3:34). He doesn’t parcel out a little bit of the Spirit. He gives all of him to all of us who ask (Luke 11:13).

All of this is about grace. Grace is God showing his favor toward us – just because he wants to and can, not because we are worthy of it. In fact, he shows more grace when we are less worthy: Paul found God’s grace was perfected when he was weakest (2 Corinthians 12:9). James tells us God gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). When we can’t do something, God can. When we recognize our need, he intervenes with grace.

And not just a little grace. We read about the early Christians meeting together daily, taking care of each other’s needs, and telling others about the resurrection. Then we read, ” . . . and great grace was upon them all.” Not just grace, but great grace.

Do we need it? Yes! Do we recognize it when it comes? Sometimes. Let’s be on the lookout for God’s generous grace in our lives today. He loves it when we notice.

“But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.” – 1 Peter 5:10

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You have to ask.

“The Lord waits to be gracious to you . . . He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as He hears it, He answers you.” – Isaiah 38:18a and19b

God offers grace – his intervention on our behalf as a free, unearned gift. Don’t we all want that? 

Naaman, Syrian military officer, (1 Kings 5) came to Elijah because he had heard Elijah could heal him of his leprosy. He was willing to ask.

Elijah tells Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan River and he would be well. The proud soldier objected. There were much better rivers in his hometown – why wash in the dirty Jordan? 

His aides talked some sense into him: Elijah is not asking much, they say, why not try it? Naaman reluctantly made his way to the Jordan River and dipped in it seven times. Not surprisingly, he came out cured of his disease.

Experiencing God’s grace in our lives seems to require two things: Recognizing our need and being willing to ask. Some of us have a hard time asking for help, but God wants us to ask. 

If we are proud, as Naaman was, we can find it hard to receive what God offers as a free, unearned gift. We’d rather not need God and his grace quite so much. But that is God’s way: Ask and receive. We don’t earn it. We can’t pay for it. We just receive.

What may be keeping God from showing us his grace? Maybe he’s waiting to hear our cry, to acknowledge our desperation for him.  

“The best place any Christian can ever be in is to be totally destitute and totally dependent upon God, and know it.”- Alan Redpath

#God’sgrace 

 

 

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Seeing and Being Seen

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“I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.” ~Mary Gardiner Brainard

Do you remember Hagar, Sarah’s maid? When she and Sarah had a confrontation, Hagar ran away. As she sat despairingly in the desert, God spoke to her, told her to go back to Sarah, and then gave her promises about the son she carried and the descendants who would follow. Hagar’s difficult circumstances had not changed, but after she met God, she saw everything in new light. Her response was “You are the God who sees me . . . I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Gen. 16:13b)

I thought back on my own life and remembered all the times that “the God who sees” was with me just as He was with Hagar. I thought of times of financial stress, family crises, job pressures, and health issues. He was present at every turn for me. Seeing His hand, even in retrospect, is powerful. “Lord, You see, You know, You do not run away. You stick by my side and are more powerful, more loving, more consistent, and closer than any human companion could possibly be. Thank You for coming close to me when I felt lost and alone.”

The God who sees is also the God who lets us see Him. As we do, we become aware of His provision, guidance, and intervention. For Hagar it was promises about Ishmael and his descendants and direction to go back to Sarah. For me it has been reassurance, understanding, opened pathways, restored relationships, and wisdom.

My life is still messy sometimes, and I am sure yours is too. I am learning to look for God in the middle of the mess – I know for sure He is there! And He’s there in your mess, too. Stop and look – He wants us to see Him!

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

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