Full of Grace

 

Me:  That is a whole lot of sweets!

Prodigal:  Yes, I think one of these will satisfy my sweet tooth for the moment.

Me:  I will share something about another sweetness called grace

 

This is from the book Becoming More Than A Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa Terkeurst

 

Grace doesn’t give me a free pass to act out how I feel, with no regard to His commands.  Rather His grace gives me consolation in the moment, with a challenge to learn from this situation and become more mature in the future.

Grace is the sugar that helps the bitter pills of confession and repentance go down without choking.   That’s why the writer of Hebrews says, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).  Grace is the reason I can go to God quickly, immediately–before I’m cleaned up– and boldly ask for His help.  In the midst of my mess, God is there.

 

Why do I not want to believe.  Why do I not want to believe that you are changing things and that I can have hope.  After the trials there comes a time for the sun to break in between the clouds.  You look up to see part of the sun but you don’t want to believe that the clouds are going away.  You don’t want to believe that it will be a sunny day.  You clutch your umbrella and prepare for the rain even though you see the sun starting to shine on your face.  It is then that I am amazed that God is patient that I don’t believe Him and He is calling that it will be a sunny day.  God I need that patience today.  God I need that grace today.

 

Isaiah 8:10

Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand:  for God is with us.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org

 

 

Man Overboard

 

Me:  Howdy Prodigal and Shyann!

Prodigal:  I am enjoying my time with Shyann even though she ain’t no bigger than a bar of soap used all day.

Me:  She is small, but being small doesn’t mean you don’t have a big heart.

Prodigal:  I agree!

 

This is from God’s Little Devotional Book for Women

 

A missionary was sailing home on furlough when she heard a cry one night–a cry that is perhaps the most difficult to hear when at sea:  “Man overboard!”  She arose quickly from her berth, lit the lamp on the bracket in her cabin, and then held the lamp at the window of her cabin in hopes of seeing some sign of life in the murky dark waters outside.

Seeing nothing she hung the lamp back on its bracket, snuffed it out, and returned to her berth with prayers for the man lost at sea.  In the morning, to her surprise she discovered the man had been rescued.  Not only that, but she learned it was the flash of her lamp through the porthole that showed those on deck the location of the missing man, who was clinging desperately to a rope still attached to the deck.  He was pulled from the cold waters in the nick of time.  Such a small deed as shining a lamp at the right time had saved a man’s life.

It isn’t the size of the deed you do that counts.  It’s the fact that you do it for good and not for evil, and with a trust that God can take every deed we perform and use it for His purposes, in our lives and in the lives of others.

 

Let us not love merely in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth-in practice and in sincerity.

1 John 3:18

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.com