What is grace?

"The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures"

 

What is grace really? We talk about it, think about it, even feel it, but what does it look like? I remember now years ago in catechism class our Pastor telling us that the amount of grace we recieve each day from God could never be measured. I didn't totally understand what he meant then, but I never forgot it. There are times in life when one has so much emotion that it can't be accurately described into words. This is one of those times in my life. As I sip my my morning tea alone in the quiet hours, and stare at the Christmas tree pondering, I realize that God's grace is  just too big too comprehend. Couldn't sleep this morning as I feel not one but two babies lives inside me trying to understand life, death, sin, grace, love, hatred and why God has put me here. His one and only Son was sent to hang and a cross, suffer and die for me. Whoa. I now know I can never and will never quite be able to grasp this love he has for me in this lifetime or how huge his gift of mercy, grace and His Son is to me. I can read it on paper, believe it my heart, and even feel His love daily in my life, but as a sinner on this earth, I will never know HIS fullness until my entrance into eternity with Him. This scripture passage speaks so much more clearly to me as I get older:

 

Ephesians 3:

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 

 

Wow, I truly think to be filled to the this measure, to the fullness of God would be more than anything one could describe. As Beth Moore puts it "oh the possibilities to work for God if we were willing to be filled to the fullest measure of the Holy Spirit everyday".

Unfortunately we live in a sinful world, and will never achieve perfection in this life. Oh how I try to, and how I fail everyday and end up dissappointed once again only to to go to God and know this:

 

 



 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Romans 8

 

Despite of who I am. That's grace!

 

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed