Have you ever had a moment with God, I guess you could call that a God moment, where everything makes sense and makes no sense at the same time?? Where You are overwhelmed by God's mercy and yet starving for His grace, the grace that empowers us to do what He has called us to do...mercy draws me to God and His grace empowers me to go beyond my natural limitations. What I cannot do on my own I can do through the grace of God...His empowering presence. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul is telling the church he has asked to God to take away his "thorn in the flesh" (you decide for yourself what it was) and Jesus responds, "My grace is sufficient for you..." Now if He had stopped there it would have seemed kind of callous or uncaring on Jesus part but He goes on the say, "for my power is made perfect in weakness." I am kind of seeing this like Paul is asking Jesus to have mercy on him and Jesus says "well I am going to do even better, I am going to give you my grace, which will empower you to live beyond what you think you can."
On many occasions I think I have prayed like Paul and have asked God to be merciful to me as I try to live in the calling He has called me to and I have missed His response..."I will do even better Bill, I will give you my grace to empower you to fulfill My call on your life." He calls...He supplies all our needs...how could I say no? Why would I say no? It is like salvation I suspect...I am saved by grace through faith...I serve by grace through faith...it is not of myself...it is a gift from God. Hmmm. Think I will stop here and think about that for a while...will you join me?
Bill
"My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness." That's like getting a big hug from God, isn't it? Your thoughts go hand in hand with my bible study tonight - at least in my mind they do :)
ReplyDeleteYou have been LAVISHED with GRACE!
Eph 1:7-10 "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace THAT HE LAVISHED ON US. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ."
GLORY TO GOD!!
-Julie
great thought Julie, a hug from God, wish I had wrote it:) Just this past week I felt like I got a big hug from God and it was awesome...Thanks for the great words!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Bill. FYI- that hug (love it!) just gets better and better as you complete your post-retreat journal. For me, The Message version has been profound:
ReplyDelete7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your
weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.
Blessings galore to you and Barb-
Paula