This is not the blog that I sat down to write out. At all. But God stole my show and had more important things for me to share haha He knows best!
So, God is good! Can we talk about that for a minute? (Or 5)
God is so good. He knows our needs, He knows our wants, He knows the deepest darkest parts of our heart, and the reason for every ear to ear smile. God takes care of His children.
Sometimes, people in our life can cause us stress. Maybe its our parents, maybe its our friends, maybe it is our bosses or even our pets. We all have people in our lives, where, from time to time, it seems like they just set out to make you miserable that day. They didn’t. But it seems that way at the time and sometimes its hard to remember that that person who wrecked your mood, who wrecked your day, made you feel inferior or hurt you in some way…. that that person is just that, a person. Another human being on this planet who has hurts and hang ups too.
We are human. We have flaws. Some super visible, some hidden deep down in the far nooks and crannies of our hearts. We also have an amazing God who literally became a man so that He could walk through this life, take our place on the cross, and bleed and die for us. John 16:33 says “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” We will have trouble. It isn’t a question of if, just a question of when. But be courageous in your life because the God of the entire universe came down and lived this life so that we could know not only Him, but that He gets it! He overcame this world. He knows our struggles.
Hebrews 2:17-18 says “for this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Does that make sense? God became a human so that no one could ever say, “God you don’t know how hard it is!” God knows all too well how hard it is. He was tempted for 40 straight days in the desert and never once sinned. He resisted and fought temptation so much more than we ever could, or have. He understands. He lived a perfect, sinless life here on earth, and then died for those of us who just cannot live up to His goodness.. Which is all of us, myself surely included.
And Hebrews 4:15-16 says “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
I’m sorry, what thrown can we draw near to confidently? The thrown of…. GRACE!
Grace. God gives grace. Abundantly. We receive mercy, we find Grace in God to conquer our struggles. Whatever or whomever they may be. Because God gives us grace for our struggles, for our shortcomings, for our sins… we are required to give grace in return. To understand that there is more than the surface, there is more going on in that persons mind than I can see, in their life than I can see. The quote you see on facebook or pinterest a lot is “Be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about”… just replace Be king with Give Grace…and you have the point of what I am trying to say here. Ephesians 4:32 says “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ our God forgave you.” Matthew 10:8 is technically speaking about money, and I don’t mean to take this out of context, but I think it applies here as well, “freely you have received, so freely give.” We were given grace free of charge, we were given life free of charge, we have been given everything, the very breath in our lungs…so freely we should give. We give grace without requiring anything in return. We forgive without requiring anything in return. We love because we are loved by our father despite our faults, so we should love one another despite theirs.
So forgive those who said hurtful things to you. Forgive those who ruined your day. Forgive those who make you feel inferior. Give grace, for we just don’t know what battle they are truly fighting.
Our God is good. And he knows our struggles. He gives us grace. Abundantly. He knows our needs. He knows our wants. He knows the battles we fight that no one else sees. He loves us despite our slip ups, our mistakes, our sins. And He slowly works in us to change us. Because He loves us. We should be striving to love people in our lives like this. And I’m not talking about just spreading his love to those who love you…giving grace to those who give grace to you. You need to love those who cause you pain, give grace to those who tax your soul. Matthew 5:46 says “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Don’t even tax collectors do that?” Tax collectors back in the day were like..scam artists basically. So even people who steal love those who love them, why would that be so hard? It is hard to love those who hate you, hurt you, persecute you. But do it anyways. Because God loves us, yet we hurt him every time we choose sin over him. And he will never, ever stop loving us.
So I challenge you today, to love those who hurt you. And not in a spiteful way, like “If I smile when they yell at me it will just make them more mad.” No… in a true, down to the bone, “I love you because you are a child of God who goes through battles just like I do. And even though I cannot understand your actions or your words towards me, I choose to forgive you and give you grace because I am forgiven and given grace daily by my Father in heaven. And you are His child, my brother or sister in Christ and I will choose to love and not hate.”
God is good. And when you rely on His love, there isn’t a battle in this world you cannot face. Grace and love and mercy and joy will fill you and flow out of you and bless all of those around you. Choose love, not hate. Choose good, not evil. Choose forgiveness, not resentment.
It frees more than just the person who did the hurting…
it frees you.
God, may all of us who struggle in this life learn to turn to you. You alone can provide us with renewed strength, with powerful and purposeful determination. You are the ultimate giver of grace. You fill those gaps in our lives that we try so desperately to fill with things like significant others, money, jobs, even acceptance. There is a God sized hole in all of our hearts that you long to fill God, and when we are filled with you we cannot be shaken, we cannot be crushed. And your love will flow from us and impact those around us for your glory, God. Remind us that we are here on this earth to bring praise and glory to your name, and give us opportunities everyday to do that abundantly. Help us to forgive so that we may be forgiven, help us to be merciful so that we may be given mercy. Guide our steps so that day by day, step by step, we can walk in a constant stream of your love and live our moments with purpose. Provide work for our idle hands and soften any hardened hearts. Thank you for everything, God, the things we know you’ve helped us through and the things you’ve protected us from in secret. You make broken lives beautiful. Amen.
