comfort-in-grace, #gracemoments, grace

Sometimes words stay with our hearts and we carry them close as we journey forward…pushing and stepping into the next thing…until we find that we have no other choice but to stop and examine them. Like a gentle conversation that invites us in, the connecting of one soul to another, the Lord whispers His Truth to our hearts in ways that reflect his love. 

He meets us right where we are and reminds us to seek Him, first… to trust Him, always…to look for His handiwork, diligently. 

And truly, His handiwork astounds me. 

There are times when I am quick to recognize the blessing of these intimate encounters. Immediately noticing the awareness of His Spirit in communion with my own, and the joy it brings is unexplainable. Yet it blooms like relief upon my soul, a comfort in those times when I feel overwhelmed; a grace that literally makes me weep.

Because this gentle grace is a clear reminder of  His personal investment of hope within each heart that invites Him in.  A hope that is founded first on love. A love that is shed abroad in our hearts to remind us what we have been given.

“Such love never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.” – Romans 5:5

Many times this comfort is remembering a section of His Word which is testifying to my heart in that moment. A passage, a sentence or maybe even a word that comes to mind and reminding me to hold tight to the promises He has given.  It is the faith building kind of comfort that Paul wrote about in Romans, the reminding kind of faith that grows each time we hear His Word in our hearts.

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Hebrews tells us that faith is a prerequisite to please God, a foundational truth that rewards the diligent seeker. 

But what if that faith is the reward of  The Seeker, too?

What if the hearing we find in that passage of Romans parallels the way His seeking of our hearts transpires?

Through the Written Word that He inscribes upon our the holy-filled-spaces, we begin to hear the steady solid timbre of His voice within our soul. We know the power of being held when we rest in the fullness of His living and powerful word.  The hidden heart we carry is the inner ear that is tuned to listen to the voice of the very One who created the sacred space He was meant to inhabit.

Just contemplating the way this King of Kings finds ways to speak hope into the depth of our soul moves me to a place of inexpressible praise…the stop and pause and think kind of worship…Selah!

As I sat down to write words of grace and encouragement to you, Isaiah’s words of comfort would not leave my mind. In the last week it was either a spot my eyes landed on in my Bible, a Word of Truth from a friend, or a constant song I heard in my memory.

And really, it was fitting, today… essentially needful for me to remember. Because every now and again, it is the bite of a word and the tilt of a phrase…just so… that steals joy from our day.  Every so often, we are pelted by the weary onslaught of the world’s ideas and judgments till we feel like we are going to buckle underneath their weight.

Words are weighty, they are deep and powerful. And we need to be filling our souls with the bread of life so that we can fight against the life stealing words that threaten the peace He has put within us.

God’s encouragement,a right on time uplifting gift. As I thought about the way that He seeks to fill us, through His Word, I started to see a pattern of encouragement that works like this.  It is a fitting and essentially needful comfort for such times as our hearts are in a position of strain and discouragement. It is the kind of offering that simply hearing the words drastically changes the atmosphere of our living, instantaneously.

It is the hope-dwelling, power-filled, sword-sharp kind of comfort that is not painful but instead is the analgesic to our inflamed and swollen soft spots the world and perhaps the people in it seem to keep irritating.  But because He has seen our tomorrow before our today saw light, we can know that by the hand of providence He is met each need with abundant grace.

Wholly filling, intimately loving, and absolutely enough kind of comfort that reflects the individual way He answers the breath prayers we speak with our hearts. 

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Fully. Loved. Enough.

Comfort words, echoing a message of depth in my soul,  remind me that my incapable moments are not too much for the One who set the sun in motion, hung the heavens, and counts the stars. If he is aware of the falling of a sparrow, and knows the numbers of hair upon our heads, then our worries and even our disappointments are not insignificant to Him.

We are not just thought about, considered, or known by the Ancient of Days, friend… we are fully loved enough.

  • Enough that we will know no lack or loss without also feeling the fullness of His provision in the midst of our waiting, because He is always faithful.
  • Enough that we will not miss the wonder of His peace in the less than peaceful days we experience, because He is never late to save us when we call.
  • Enough that we will never feel the burden of our own sin and shame, because He completed that work on the Cross at Calvary and it was finished and completed by the action of LOVE.
  • Enough that knowing God is made possible because He made the effort to first know us.

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It is this knowing and being known by God in all things that completes our living, gives purpose to our days, and peace-filled slumber to our nights.

In our moments of lack, of loss, of hurt, and pain, the power of love is more than adequate to meet our needs sufficiently.  Even in good things where we rejoice with our victories, embrace our accomplishments, and enjoy the journeys, it is the comfort of His presence that completes us. Especially in the difficult things where we have to look with faith eyes to see fully, we come to know that it is always only in His presence that the beauty of enough will totally alter our perspective of this grace thing that he is weaving in our hearts.

Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding.  He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might he increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound.]
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and  [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him ] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired . Isaiah 40:28-31

I have been blessed by Isaiah’s reminders today, encouraged to know that comfort is a part of His leading us by GRACE because…

…sometimes we need the reminder that it is His strength that carries us on when we are incapable of standing on our own.

…sometimes we need to see that our weariness is not a weakness, but an admission that we need grace and He will never faint in His comforting of our hearts.

…sometimes we need understand that while we wait upon the Lord, He will steady our steps so we can fulfill His Divine purpose in our lives.

When serving God ranks above serving self, the waiting we experience, as we look to the Comforter, becomes a beautiful explanation of faith to a world needing to see the face of the Savior and the heart of the Father.

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And comfort is more about knowing that we don’t have to worry or wait without hope…

Rather, we are fully encouraged, wholly hope-filled, and blessed with more than enough grace for this journey. I encourage you to take time to meditate on this chapter of Isaiah today, and be filled up with more than enough of His goodness as you go.

How have you found His comfort being revealed in your lives today, friends? Where are you collecting #gracemoments on the journey?signature-1024x396.png


 

IT’S YOUR TURN TO BE A GRACE COUNTER!  SHARE YOUR GRACE MOMENT IN THE COMMENTS BELOW AND THEN COUNT GRACE WITH A FRIEND WITH COMMENT ON A BLOG OR TWO.

If you are a blogger, link up here with  a post about finding grace moments in your life or one of your favorite inspiring and encouraging posts from this week. Share your thoughts in the comment section telling me about the #Grace Moments you experienced this week. *(only 1 post per link please)*

Take time to visit your neighbor next to you, and if you want visit a few more friends on the journey. We all need a little encouragement and affirmation as we travel together.

If you don’t have a blog, you can connect with me via my Journeys in Grace FB page by sharing a photo or a comment.  Or you can join the party by sharing your images on Instagram with #Gracemoments hashtag.

Each week I will  try visit as many of your amazing  posts as I can.This is a safe place to sit and dwell in grace together, friends. I can’t wait to pour a cup of friendship with you and take in the grace moments you have to share. Don’t forget to leave a comment below, I love to hear from you.

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