Grace

What is the meaning of Grace?  Psalm84:11 says:  For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield; the Lord bestows (present) grace and favor and (future) glory (honor, splendor, and heavenly bliss)!  No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

God is Love and in Ps84:11, He shows us His forgiving nature and His immeasurable Grace over us, but that does not mean that we can simply sin and God's Grace must cover it.  No, His Grace is there when we repent (and we no longer do this wrong thing/s).  God does not remove His Grace from us, we remove ourselves from His  Grace when we sin and think that we can say sorry and carry on doing those same things that are sin.

Satan wants us to feel wrong, worthless, and like hopeless messes.  He knows that without confidence we will never step out in faith to fulfill our God-ordained destinies.  He knows if he can keep us in the prison of self-hatred, self-rejection, or just plain not liking ourselves that he will prevent us from making progress or ever being a threat to him and to the kingdom of darkness.

We must believe we have been made righteous in God's sight before we will behave rightly.

I know that God's Grace is over me and my family, because over the past 10 months we have lived through really tough times daily.  Some days we had only bread to eat other days we had no electricity, etc., but through it all God's Grace was and still is with us.  I know this because He sent strangers to help us, be it financially or otherwise.  I remember one time sitting in church hearing how someone was helped by a stranger and thought wow how does that happen.  Well I have lived it, but it is not something that I can explain, because God's Grace is not something you can explain, you live it.

God loves us so much that He favor's us even though we have sinned against Him.  His forgiveness is so great that He immediately steps in and starts changing things and the changes might not be apparent immediately (because His timing is always right), but He is working on it.  I know this.  Just another example of His Grace is the fact that we have during all this time managed to keep our vehicles not because we wanted to, but I believe God wanted us to.  If it was not His desire for us He would allow for it to be removed.  We are still living in the same house even though satan tried to have us evicted many times, God did not allow it.  There no such thing as luck it is only God's Grace.

And if you think that you have no blessings while going through a difficult time, think again.  What about your family, your husband your wife, your children?  All the little things behind the scenes that we don't think to thank God for everyday?  He takes care of all that while we often go and have our own little pity party saying Lord why can't I have this and why can't I have that.  Instead of thanking Him for what we do have.

That is His Grace!  What if He decided one day well you have not thanked me for this or that and He takes it all away?  Think about that.  But He would not do that, because He loves us so much and He does not change, but we change.

Ephesians2:8 says:  For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through (your) faith.  And this (salvation) is not of yourselves (of your own doing, it came not through your own striving), but it is the gift of God.

God wants only good things for us, not bad - light not darkness.