Gift of Grace

God's love is unconditional.  He sent Jesus as the greatest gift of grace.  And it is by this grace that I have been saved.  Nothing I can do is greater than this amazing gift.  No actions that I take make me more worthy of this grace. God knows my heart.  He knows that there are times that I am extremely prideful.  I do thing often with the expectation of receiving a thank you.  Or at least some gesture of gratitude.  I know that my action are often selfish.  I am so thankful for the love God has lavished on me.  After reading a few verses on God's grace for me.  I see how much He knows my heart.  He knew me even before I came into existence.  I  know that I should glorify God in all that I do.  But I fail a lot.  I am a sinner saved by grace! "For it is by GRACE you have been SAVED, through FAITH - and this is not from yourselves, it it the GIFT of GOD - not by works, so that no one can boast."  Ephesians 2: 8-9.

This past week was very emotional for me.  I found that I was easily angered.  Very irritable and cried over silly stuff.  Early on in the week I came home from work and lost my mind.  I was feeling pulled in a thousand directions.  And all I wanted to do was come home to a clean house with a house full of smiling happy people.  Yes, I have a bad habit of great expectations.  Instead I came home to a messy house (Kids all had off from school, work, etc....) and my outburst caused chaos to errupt.  I went to bed and cried myself to sleep.  I felt so alone and so sad.  I work so hard all day and I came home and felt so disrespected.

I woke up the next morning.  I was still carrying a little sadness with me from the night before.  I began to pray.  And thought a lot about what it meant for me to begin to travel lightly.  How can I surrender it and surrender it ALL? Jesus laid down His life so that I could have a glorious eternity.  And I am being such a brat. It isn't about me.  Scripture tells us that we are to put off our old self, which is corrupted by deceitful desires. So that we could be made new in the attitude of our minds. And then we will put on a new self, one that is created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. God loves me for me! If I surrender my selfish needs and speak from my heart I will begin to travel lighter.  God's grace is amazing.  and when I walk with His grace upon me life is brighter.  My heart begins to soften. And I can begin to hear Him more clearly.

This weekend I attended a seminar.  The theme was John 3:16.  "For God SO love the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."  When I first heard about the seminar I wasn't going to attend. I thought I had heard this verse so many times.  I didn't need to hear it again.  Can you say "BRAT!"  God knew that my heart wasn't as soft as it needed to be for Him to penetrate and saturate my life.  So He continued to push me until I wrote the check and signed up for the weekend.  I still thought that I might be backing out of it.  My husband had tickets to the Phillies game and wouldn't have a car.  He sold the tickets.  I thought about being home with my husband because he had to work the whole weekend.  But God made it clear.  I had to go.  He had a message that my heart need to hear.  I needed to know that God SO loves me.  His heart for me is so full of grace.  He looks at me and His heart jumps for joy.  He watches over me.  And longs for me to be completely His.  He sees me as pure beauty.  There is no flaw.  I am His perfect princess.  I am blessed and highly favored.