Grace
These thoughts came during the year that our small group Bible study focused on grace.
Grace
Father, Before I thank You for the freedom Your grace has provided for me, I have to ask forgiveness for not appreciating it, not even giving it much thought most days.
If I give it thought apart from Sunday--church, Sunday school--it is when I am in the Bible and in prayer, and all too often even at those times I end up lacking full focus on You.
I need to ask forgiveness for that too, for letting my mind wander, and rather than bringing it back with my will, letting it take me, let inertia dominate.
I think I have a lot to repent of.
But Father, if not for Your grace, I would still be dead in my trespasses and sins, and think I was alive.
If not for Your grace, I would neither be the woman I am or have any hope of being the woman I am in the process of becoming.
Help me understand and appreciate the ramifications of Your grace--and mercy and peace--in daily life and to apply all of them to my life with my husband and everyone else--even those who call at inopportune times.
Before I can appreciate the freedom Your grace has provided, I have to be more aware of all that grace itself includes--and be able to give an answer if someone asks me about grace.
Way too often I just go and do not see grace even when grace is going with me.
Way too often when someone mentions even saving grace, my thoughts go to life's end rather than to life's present, or even life's past; how limiting that thought is!
Way too often I don't come to the well of grace but go dry and more dry, then complain about the dryness of my life/heart, when that is my own fault--and fault I do not seek grace for.
Way too often--let this be the end of that; let there be no more way too oftens, no more regrets for choices made without thought.
And then there are the consequences:
When I do not receive grace, I cannot deliver grace to others who need it.
When I do not receive grace, I cannot appreciate its full value.
When I do not receive grace, I fall back into the so-called gospel of works.
When I do not receive grace, I, in essence, abuse it, frustrate it, turn from it.
But God,
But God, Your grace pursues me, through circumstances and Scriptures,
Through messages from others and through messages from Your word in study,
And oh, my Father, how grateful I am for
Your pursuing grace.
May I so live that others realize that is what it is, and that it pursues them as well.
May Your grace work in Your glory in all, to all, through all, for all.

Grace

Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary dates this word from the 12th century and the etymology as Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin, and akin to the Sanskrit word translated he praises.

Functioning as a noun, grace has more than eight definitions, including the following:

1 a: unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification b: a virtue coming from God c: a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace

2 a: APPROVAL, FAVOR ... b: archaic: MERCY, PARDON c: a special favor: PRIVILEGE ... d: disposition to or an act or instance of kindness, courtesy, or clemency e: a temporary exemption: REPRIEVE



Since my last post, my uncle passed away, which was an act of grace on God's part, and not the first in my uncle's life. He experienced all the definitions of grace above.



Since my last post, a bridge in Minneapolis, which I knew well, collapsed for no obvious reason, and we saw the kinds of grace defined in 2 d above, and perhaps 2 e as well. It may be that through this some will have the experiences in 1 a 1 b and 1 c, if they have not already.



One year, our women's Bible study chose to focus on walking in grace. This brought me to write many pieces, including the following.



Grace upon Grace upon Grace

Grace of God

God, as Father, as Lord Jesus Christ, as Spirit only Holy,

Thoughts of You and of Your favor, full, eternal, unmerited,

Leave me breathless, astonished, humbled,

And a writer at a loss for words.



Oh grace of God

God, as Father, as Lord Jesus Christ, as Spirit only Holy,

Thoughts of You and of Your favor, full, eternal, unmerited,

Leave me breathless, astonished, humbled,

And as a writer at a loss for words....



Where can even a writer go

To speak of the Word, The Word--

In Flesh, in human form--

The Word enfleshing the Father*

The Word in Whom the Father is well pleased



No, only the Word in print can rightly speak of the Word in Flesh,

And before both I bow--in silence



[*"He who has seen Me has seen the Father"]



O Grace of God

God as Father, as Lord Jesus Christ, as Spirit only Holy,

Thoughts of You and of Your favor, full, eternal, unmerited,

Leave me breathless, astonished, humbled,

And a writer at a loss for words....



Where can even a writer go

To speak of the Word, The Word--

In Flesh, in a nondescript human form--

The Word in Whom the Father is well pleased



No, only the Word in print can rightly speak of the Word in Flesh,

And before both I bow--in silence



For a current discussion of how God shows love and grace to the world, go to http://www.teampyro.blogspot.com/