Amazing GRACE, how sweet the sound…
those are the words that come out of our mouths. We sing it to the Lord yet we run from it. The sound of that screeches in our ears, and it seems to hurt, so we run.
I heard someone say that the message of grace is an embarrassment!
WHAT?!?! I don’t understand. How can grace be embarrassing? Why does America… and the american “christian” get embarrassed by grace? Why do they run the other way when grace gets taught? You would think that grace would draw people in… apparently not! It pushes people away…
I’ve been thinking about that a good bit… and I can begin to see why people run. It’s from pain in their own lives and lies from the enemy.
Job 22:25-27 (The Message)
21-25 “Give in to God, come to terms with him and everything will turn out just fine. Let him tell you what to do; take his words to heart. Come back to God Almighty and he’ll rebuild your life. Clean house of everything evil. Relax your grip on your money and abandon your gold-plated luxury.God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine.
26-30 “You’ll take delight in God, the Mighty One, and look to him joyfully, boldly.You’ll pray to him and he’ll listen; he’ll help you do what you’ve promised. You’ll decide what you want and it will happen; your life will be bathed in light. To those who feel low you’ll say, ‘Chin up! Be brave!’ and God will save them. Yes, even the guilty will escape, escape through God’s grace in your life.”
21-25 “Give in to God, come to terms with him and everything will turn out just fine. Let him tell you what to do; take his words to heart. Come back to God Almighty and he’ll rebuild your life. Clean house of everything evil. Relax your grip on your money and abandon your gold-plated luxury.God Almighty will be your treasure, more wealth than you can imagine.
26-30 “You’ll take delight in God, the Mighty One, and look to him joyfully, boldly.You’ll pray to him and he’ll listen; he’ll help you do what you’ve promised. You’ll decide what you want and it will happen; your life will be bathed in light. To those who feel low you’ll say, ‘Chin up! Be brave!’ and God will save them. Yes, even the guilty will escape, escape through God’s grace in your life.”
Could this be it… giving in? do we as americans, as humans, not want to give in? It seems like that’s what it takes, to let the Lord tell you what to do. But we don’t like being told what to do. We are a culture bread to be independent. We are told we should be able to provide for ourselves. It says to relax your grip on money and abandon luxury. “OH HECK NO”… Humans do not like to leave what’s comfortable. They do not like to let go of their money. But we cant serve both God and money… so if thats true, then why don’t we let go of our money and our luxuries? Why have we begun to assume that getting away from “comfortable” is bad? The enemy is speaking lies into our lives, and presenting us with what seems good and right and comfortable. So we take it. But is this why we run from grace?
I think it is one reason of many. Americans have been taught to never give in, to hold their own, and be independent. When we can’t do that, we get embarrassed. I know that I can feel that way.
When I first began to learn money management… it was not pretty. I had my debit card, and I had a very limited amount of mullah in my account. It was hard to manage… and let’s just face it, I overdrew. Although, I always seemed to be able to recover. There was however one time that I overdrew, and had no income for a few weeks. I still had to live life, pay for gas, eat, you know… but my card would not work b/c there was nothing in my account. I realized I had to ask my dad to borrow some money. And that was embarrassing, I had to say that I messed up, that I could not do this on my own and that I needed help. I would have preferred to run the other way, and if there was any other alternative, I would have.
So I can relate, I see that when you are being taught to be independent and hold your own, and you can’t, it can seem embarrassing. When you have to admit that you messed up, that you can’t do it on your own and that you need help, we want to hide. But what we have overlooked is that grace is not condemning. It is not supposed to embarrass us. It is meant to bring peace. Grace helps us. If we truly embrace it, we can look to the Lord with delight, and we can look to him and be joyful… not embarrassed. The enemy has been hiding this from us, and we need to overcome it!
Romans 5:20
All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life-a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.
That is what grace is supposed to be. It invites us into life! A life of abundance!!
Now…
Amazing GRACE, how SWEET the sound!
It truly is a sweet sound to know that grace from the messiah is what invites us into and abundant life that goes on and on!
hey, this was a wonderful message to read. It really touched me. All you have shared, very true… thank you!