Grace Still Overflows
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
I think in challenging times, it’s so easy to latch onto the tough things going on and fixate on WHY God would let them happen. It’s human, and it’s ok. God is not mad at your questions, nor your grief.
But those moments are the ones where your professed faith matters. We say that we trust Jesus died to cover our sin, but we forget about the other places where this same faith holds power. Like trusting that God can make the hardest things into meaningful things. Like trusting that there is grace for each day, even among the bad ones.
God is not the reason for this or any suffering; but God is able to weave it into beauty.
So one of the gifts of knowing Jesus here on earth is that, even when we are exhausted and discouraged and bored and anxious and fill-in-the-blank, His Spirit is able to help us perceive the good grace all around us.
1 / The gift of distancing our worth and our value from our money when we are financially strained.
2 / The gift of joy from an amazing sunset when we are tired of being inside our homes.
3 / The gift of technology that allows us to stay connected to each other when 100 years ago this situation would have been COMPLETELY isolating.
4 / The gift of solitude that we would never have sought on our own, but that our souls desperately need.
5 / The gift of knowing that the sick will be healed, and the wrongs righted. And we get to participate in that reversal without having to carry the burden of it.
Connecting with God and growing in our knowledge of Christ doesn’t just make us smarter in our confession or more educated in our belief structure.
The more connected we are to Jesus, the more sensitive we become to His voice -- the voice that shows us how to act, speaks wisdom to our confusion, and illuminates the grace surrounding us all the time, even now.
God has put it on my heart to make this page a place where people see how much the Bible has to say to them -- that God will speak to you when you open up the channel! But also: God has put it on my heart to “not forget all His benefits.”
Because while following Jesus is not the easy way, and while it comes at a high cost, following Jesus is the better way. When we answer the difficult call to follow, Jesus trades His yoke with our own. And it is a beautiful, free, light, abundant way, so long as we only abide in Him.
Psalm 103:8-14 // The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.
He knows our weakness; he knows we are dust. He doesn’t expect you, in your humanity, to cling to an ignorant optimism. Rather, as we grow in the knowledge of God through Jesus our mediator, He gives us the grace of perceiving still more grace.
“If you are willing to entirely give up self, and to allow Jesus Christ to become your life within you, inspiring all your thinking, feeling, and acting, in things temporal and spiritual, He is ready to take charge. In the fullest and widest sense the word life can have, He will be your life, extending His interest and influence to each one of the thousand things that make up your daily life. To do this He asks only one thing: Come away, out of self and its life; abide in Christ and He will be your life. The power of His holy presence will cast out the old life….He will teach you to be humble and watchful. He will teach you to be happy and trustful.” - Andrew Murray, Abiding in Christ
Where do you perceive His grace amidst the turmoil? Where do you see Him redeeming the sources of your grief/anxiety for you good and His glory?