The Divine Appointment of Grace

Being settled into the rhythm of the everyday  monotonous can steal the extraordinary right out from under you, even when you are looking right at it. Staring bold face into the wind of His extreme love, we can still miss it. The audacious truth that God loves us. He flat out, wholly fully loves us.  And that is scary sometimes.

When a love is so true, when it is so full and so complete and it is there for us to take hold of and to grow in…It is soul bearing deep.

The psalmist’s words echo in my brain… ‘deep calls.’ And I find  myself hearing the shallow rebounding of the emptiness within and I want to hide from His presence because there is simply not one good thing within my deep to answer that call.

Yet, He longs to spend beauty upon us. He longs to shed His divine holiness amongst the places we dwell and bring us to the place where the seat of mercy is forever a welcome respite for the weary heart that knows it doesn’t deserve , but wants to drink deeply of the respite being provided in the shelter of grace.

Life can be really hard, friends. Kinda raw and real and yucky hard. And there are just some days when the answers are not to be found. In fact the only solution is to  wait in the dust until the answer passes by and we begin to cry out like Bartimaeus in loud wails and urgent cries, “Lord Jesus have mercy on me.”

Mercy is  a lot like grace in that it is divinely appointed to be our destiny In Christ.

And when the day has finally met the quota of all we can take, we break out  in a run of desperation after the One who gives sight to the blind and restores a vision for Kingdom living. Because here is a truth friends, it is good… it is for you… it is the answer to those breaking days…

His pursuit of us reveals that grace is a divine appointment and He has invited you to meet with Him, unhindered.

Yes! Successfully reaching that place where His love has covered the chasm and provided a way was already taken care of at the Cross and we don’t have to find our way on our own, wandering blindly, groping for a hand-hold that will steady our gait.

Grace is a divine appointment.

The only reason we are living in this defeated state of mind is because we are gauging the response of the Father based on our perspective  instead of God’s. Sometimes I can’t get my head wrapped around this truth.

Grace is set aside for the heirs of salvation to inherit. We have  access through Him. We have Christ’s name. We have authority. It is already provided. The abundance is already there. The invitation has already been extended.

And still we hold back.

We refrain from going into that place intentionally reserved at a table set for a feast because we place our limitations on this love He has given. A love already poured from well of abundance whose source is never ending.

But God… he doesn’t stop the pursuit of our ragamuffin hearts and the grace moment here just can’t be evaded.

A.W. Tozer said, ” Our pursuit of God can be successful just because He is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us.”

Grace moments multiply when we behold. All through scripture this word , behold, commands us to look, to take in, to receive what is being placed in front of us.  Grace moments come to us in the form of many faces.  Our children, our friends, our family, trials, and hardships.And we need to look for the grace that is waiting to be found. Look in the hard and the risky and the raw and the breaking. Look to the deep.

Behold grace to embrace the deep  and echo back its cry with the daily counting.

When we choose to embrace the power of His living within us as our ultimate and complete guide through our days, we recognize that call from the deep of His existence. The deep within us resonates back, an echo, a cry of the recreated by love’s overshadowing hope, and we are doused by the inspired waterfall of His presence in the very real moments of now.

Roaring deep calls to roaring deep at the thunder of Your waterspouts; all Your breakers and Your rolling waves have gone over me.-Psalm 42:7

When I let the habit of counting graces go, looking for those moments where grace rules, I find myself in every kind of disappointment and distrusting.  That believing faith that comes by seeing not what is temporal in front of me, but what is eternally true in front of God. But when I let go of those good things, and counting graces is a good thing, I find my dry and parched soul crying out for hydration. That faith-sight,  to see the ordinary as He views our living, keeps me situated right under the spigot of grace.

We need to count grace in our lack. We need to recognize how sufficient His grace is when we are weak.

Can I tell you, that one of the biggest areas where I lack of grace is here in my home where the real is super real and the everyday wears me down.  This super important job of being a mom and a wife is awesome, and I’m not all that good at it sometimes. Granted… we all go there, right? We all find our weaknesses shine when in the mirror reveals a reflection we don’t like to see? Epecially when in close proximity of humans.  Humans that tend to reflect your own issues… that remind you where sin abounds grace is needed.

It has been all too apparent, recently, as I have let busy sweep in and take over.  And friends, these places we long to give to God, but hold on tight because control feels safe, can feel like counting failures rather than graces.  I haven’t forgotten what it was like to be their age, but I can tell you I still don’t know the best way to navigate those choppy waters that hormones and seeking hearts require with finesse.

Sometimes I forget that these people growing right before me are changing and growing and dreaming when I am planning and organizing and fixing.

And when they crash or stop the moving, I am not always prepared for it.

Or when the journey doesn’t look like I thought it would, it becomes an agitation that if left alone will soon deconstruct those things we build so carefully.

But God…

In His Grace leads us back to that mercy seat. His perspective friends, it is the answer to being able to see those grace moments in every single situation because He has provided His Word as our sword and our shield for the battles that are bound to consume our days, but not destroy our lives.

2 Corinthians 4:8 says, “We are troubled on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed by not in despair”

We are going to fail. We are going to fall. We are going to forget what grace really looks like from time to time. But He doesn’t.  And this is how we count those graces right in the midst of the hard and the real.

I love Micah’s words here, “Rejoice not over me, my enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.” – Micah 7:8

And because of that, we have those windows of promise where light seeps through our crazy humanity.  When we fix our  eyes on the One who is our mountain mover, our kingdom shaker,  and the promise keeper, we are no longer stuck in the place where grace moments escape our view.

Grace is His gift to us. His mercy that is all around us waiting to be seen. Even in the rough spots, especially in the trials.  Always in the dark places. The sufficiency of it leads us to the pools of refreshment, so we can get a glimpse and keep trudging on.

My grace is sufficient for thee: ( it is enough for you, enabling you)for My strength is made perfect in weakness. – 2 Corinthians 12:9(emphasis mine)

This grace is a divine appointment  calling from the deep part of His heart to yours  and mine with the passion and zeal sees beyond our everyday monotonous to reveal the simply extraordinary, the audacious reality that God loves you big.  It is enough to enable you on those days when you fall and fail and wonder if you will ever get it right. It is enough on the days when you are dry and parched and needing to be overwhelmed with His waves of mercy.

He is pursuing you with this divine favor that proceeds from the fullness of His love.  What are the grace moments you are collecting today?

I am so excited that next Thursday, March 10th, will be the official start of the Grace Moments Link Up. I hope you will join me next week and link up your thoughtful or inspiring posts that capture His grace moments in your lives.   I look forward to getting to know fellow travelers on this journey to grace together.

Journeying with friends into Grace.

Three Word Wednesday, Coffee For Your Heart, Thought Provoking Thursdays, Missional Women, Grace and Truth Link Up, Dance with Jesus, Faith and Friends Blog Hop,Weekend Whispers, Give Me Grace, Sits Girls Link Up,Unite, #Tell His Story, RaRaLink Up