Grace As A Choice

I've been away from my blog for awhile for which I hope that you'll forgive me. Having been presented with, and directed to, new challenges and pathways, I desperately needed some time to adjust and to begin to manage some new opportunities that our Lord had planned as part of my journey even before He created me. I cannot promise that I'll begin posting again with any real regularity, but that I will be obedient to do so as the Lord prompts - moments like now.

These changes in my life of late, I can see are part of a much larger plan for my growth that has actually been in place for a very long time. They're just another step, another lesson and opportunity to learn and to demonstrate my willingness to seek and to follow what He's ordained to be the pathway of my life from the beginning. This being very much the same as the individual course that He's willed and carefully planned for every human being that He's ever given the gift of life to. As with every pathway of opportunity that He's predestined, we have the choice to follow or not while He watches with great hope and expectation that we will rise to those moments of decision and find our way obediently empowered with the gifts that He's made available to help us navigate the way.

In moments of recent reflection in the midst of some new and sudden chaos (not unlike that which the disciples encountered in the form of a sudden storm while on the sea in a small boat), I find not only a choice to panic or to remain trusting of the power that has brought me this far, but the revelation of a superior and Holy plan made by my Father. The One who's intentions can only be seen as evil when viewed through untrusting eyes. My Father's plans and intentions are always designed to profit me, not in worldly things that will only have a dated and perishable worth, but in things that will shine for eternity as a glowing example of His great love for me personally.

The lessons and ensuing tests that I've more recently been able to see clearly and learn to embrace have taken place over a long period of time. At times they've been hard and deeply painful. In my own mind while enduring them, they've been agonizingly slow. But our Father in His knowing wisdom doesn't rush us as He teaches us things of vital importance because of His deep and abiding love for us. He never pushes us faster than our ability to absorb what He's trying to teach us and in some cases (mine not withstanding) the lessons may take years to complete. One of mine has been a life long and recurrent lesson in the values of humility ... and grace.

To some, the word grace brings to mind an eloquence in the methodology of movement, speech or thought. In the mind of a disciple of Christ however, the definition is something much more divine in its motivation and nature and something much more powerful and capable in its effect to change hearts, minds and even lives. In it's purest form it has a profound power to create awe when it's truly recognized because of its stark contrast to worldly thinking and values. It's become a rare commodity in the world in general because of its price without worldly gain.

Grace isn't something that just happens. It's not something that occurs without a conscious choice to employ it and when it's given, by it's true definition it's given to people who most often don't deserve it. I found numerous definitions for the word grace, most of them worldly and lacking in understanding of the value of the most precious form. Like most other things we might experience that are truly pure and holy, its' definition has become clouded, shrouded in a mist of obscurity and worldly definition with the potential to become confused in worldly wisdom and consequently - devalued.

For every good thing that is a part of the essence of who our God is, our enemy has created a counterfeit intended to pollute our thinking and detract from our understanding. It's part of a campaign of misinformation, confusion and delusion intended to keep us impotent even as we profess to represent and to be disciples of the omnipotent God. Yet, as I walk the pathway of my own life as designed by my loving Father, I find that by His intention the truth is never hidden from those who are submissive to His teaching and hunger for His perspective. In fact I've come to recognize that every day I live, I am a child of grace born of His great love and that for all eternity I will never be any more or any less than a child of His unmerited favor.

I didn't even deserve to be born ... and having been born ... I didn't deserve to live. Living ... I deserved only to die. Every day that I live, I fall short of deserving to live another day and having lived in my imperfection, with out question, I certainly fall short of deserving to live eternally by my own merit. But faced with death, I once again was allowed to make a choice that I didn't deserve to have to accept a gift that I could never deserve - to live forever.

Who makes this possible for me? Not me, I can't earn these things. I can't earn the right to deserve it. I had no choice in the offering. The only choice I had was to humbly accept it with a gratitude that deserves to be as eternal as the gift itself, or like a fool - to reject it.

With these things in mind, forever being awesomely indebted to the God who freely gives His undeserved favor, how can I even consider withholding my own frail and far less valuable favor from any of His children - whoever they might be. However undeserving I may deem another to be, I know myself that (all pretense and arrogance aside) I myself am no more deserving than they. So in reverent and holy fear of my Sovereign Lord, how can I ever allow myself to withhold grace from another.

If the Lord my God was willing to put aside His own righteous indignation to allow Himself to show me such great favor, then am not I subject to His judgement for withholding my own puny favor from someone else no more undeserving than I?

I could spell out some examples here of what it means to show grace to other people in your life. But if I did, it's likely that you would merely read what I wrote and move on. I would also likely unintentionally limit what that means by my own weak examples and definition. I would rather leave that to the Holy Spirit and pray that my words here haunt your thinking. We serve a living and moving God who is not limited by our definitions or thinking. He deals with us individually and makes revelation as He will to those in a one on one relationship with Him.

But remember ... that in every situation and every circumstance, we have a choice to offer grace as we have received it ...