Embracing Grace.

The other day while I was out grocery shopping, I found myself feeling really down and distracted. Though for a single moment, God broke through whatever cloud is currently fogging my vision to remind me of the journey I had prayed for only 9 months ago.

Back in late October/early November, during a very turbulent time in my life, I was broken down to the point where I did not even know what to pray for, but the Lord guided me to a space of simply just asking for more awareness of Him. It started out as a prayer for “more of Him”, but I was quickly reminded that I already have ALL of Him. God doesn’t give us just part of who He is, we are given all of who He is. So my prayer quickly turned into, “I want more awareness of your infinite presence.”

I forgot that I had asked for that. I have been in such a funk lately that I forgot about this answer to prayer that had entered into my life just a few short months ago. So as I continued shopping I began to pray that God would reveal to me what it is that was distracting me from experiencing the fullness of His presence. I literally have all of it, but I seem to think in this space when things are not clear, that I have little to none of it.

I think this is Satan’s number one action plan: To simply distract us from the knowledge of the fullness of God. It’s silly really, when you think about it, how the only real thing he can do is just DISTRACT us from what we already have. He cannot take it away, the only power he has is to throw things at us that he believes we will want more than the presence of God. But even then, God is WITH us in the distraction. HE NEVER LEAVES US.

I have found in this current season that it is difficult for me to let myself be loved. All of that comes from this war that is waging on against us DAILY. The enemy wants more than anything for us to believe that the extravagant love displayed for us on the cross was void, that it was empty and conditional. But the truth is that the work of the cross was the fullness of God displayed through UNCONDITIONAL love and it was FINISHED.

While we have an enemy, I believe that sometimes WE are what gets in the way of OURSELVES embracing the grace the Lord has given us through the gospel. One of the things the enemy will throw at us is shame. We have a choice to either sit in that or to turn to the truth of the gospel which says that ALL of our sins have been covered. We get prideful sometimes, believing that for some reason our sin is “too much” for grace. As Christ followers, we somehow convince ourselves that God makes exceptions for the sins in our lives that we deem “Unforgivable”. But this is truth: God does not make exceptions; every sin is COVERED by the blood of Christ.

I recently came across this verse in Isaiah:

“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:22)

Whatever it is (and you know exactly what sin it is that is weighing you down) give it to the Lord. He has ALREADY redeemed it. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He has already paid for, and covered that sin in His grace.

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

– Romans 6: 1-14

We LIVE with Christ! Rest in this truth today. As a child of God, ALL of your sins have been forgiven and you are now under GRACE.