Let's Talk: Grace and Mercy

"Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world."

Dear God, give me the strength for which I ask, that I may do Your will. I want You to dwell inside my heart Lord, because You inside my heart makes me greater than he who is in this world. There will be nothing that he can do to me to break me or take me from your glory. So it doesn't matter what he does to me or even what I do to myself. Because Your ways are so much greater, and You have more power than the devouring lion. So he may try but he won't break me. It won't matter what place he puts me in or what place I put myself in, but the place I find myself in when I look to You and I focus on You. I may not know what place that will be, but I do know that You will elevate me above what I can do. There i will keep my eyes stayed on you just like the trapeze artists focused to stay safe and secure.

And You promised to bless us Lord, as long as we turn to You and give You everything; as long as we repent and turn away from those things that would break us down; turn away from them and walk into the direction of something that will take their place. A positive for the negative, light for the darkness, good for the bad, strength for the weakness. All we need is Your strength Lord. Sometimes we don't have enough strength to make it through some of these things, but we have to remember to look to you for that strength and realize that we can't do this on our own.

You never said that it would be easy, but You did say that You would never put more on us than we could bare. Therefore, we should press on and know that means You are there for us no matter what. You've given us strength, and when we become weak and we don't see any hope, the truth still remains evident that You won't put more on us than we can bear. And if we get tired and don't think that we can go on; if our feet become buried while kicking through the sands of time or the road gets rough, You are there to pick us up in Your mighty yet gentle arms, and hold and carry us. As mighty as we think we are to carry so much weight on our shoulders, when we become weak, not only will you carry us, but you will carry our problems. If You don't get rid of them, You will decrease their impact in our lives. You said "Come to me, ye who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest." 

So we look to You because You are THAT good. It's not because we deserve it-definitely not. But it's because You have chosen to give us what so many people talk about and so few understand until something happens- You have decided to give us Your grace and Your mercy. We deserve to die and forever be forgotten in the lake of fire and burn in hell. No sugar coating it. We deserve to be wiped from existence because we are dirty sinners. But the good thing is that Your mercy said "No! I made them. They are my children!" And You gave us the option and the will to choose. That's where Your mercy and grace falls into place. You gave us Your Son as a sacrifice. So instead of us dying, He died. His blood came from His body for us. His body was broken and torn for us. You gave Him as a sacrifice to suffer in our stead. What more could anyone do? You gave us life more abundantly so that we could actually live longer in the sense that actually matters. You are great for that! And that is a clear example of Your grace.

 You continue to give to us what we don't deserve (Your grace and mercy), as if we have deserved it the entire time. I didn't deserve it. No one living on this earth deserved it, but you still give it to us. And you're not asking us to do anything that is difficult. You are only asking us to do as we should do anyway, by showing gratitude and praise, and realizing that You didn't have to show us favor but You did. And You are only asking us to turn to You, and that is not difficult. There are people in this world that would ask us to do things far more difficult, maybe things that we should never be asked to do. But You asked us to calm ourselves, look inside our hearts, and just be still and focus on the things that we should want to focus on anyway-things that are positive.  Positive things like You, Your grace and mercy, which have been evident in our lives from birth and will be evident until the day that we die. 

Everyday You show grace. Food on the table is Your grace. Use of our limbs is Your grace. The song in our heart that we sing is Your grace. Even the hardships that we face are grace, because we can learn from these hardships and then give a testimony that someone needs, while being Your ambassador. I do not claim to be perfect. I have made mistakes. Some things that I am not proud of. There have been some evils in my life that have grabbed me and embraced me. There have even been some evils in my life that I have embraced myself. But the good thing is that I can learn from it. I'm sorry for those things, and that gives me the opportunity to look back and ask You God to have your way in my life with those situations and to forgive me and teach me not to do those things again. Give me the strength not to do those things again and therefore become a living testament and testimony to someone else as a living encouragement, because You are a living God. I know this because I see You and feel You in my heart. I see Your goodness that You've given me because it is so much. It is Your grace I see in everything. We don't deserve it but You give it to us. Your grace and your mercy.  

Anytime that situations get rough we should look to You. All of us. Because going through some things or being tested doesn't mean that we are being punished. It may be difficult to related this to anything less than punishment or torture perhaps, but there is always some good that can come through the cloud of uncertainty. There is always something that can be taught or learned, because tests bring testimonies. We should look to You in faith and know that we will be renewed. We should run with faith in our own respective races of life, and know wholeheartedly, and with confidence, that Your grace and mercy has provided an avenue of peace and reconciliation, that we may come to You via the Gift of Jesus Christ.

Knowing God and His Promises

As I rose one morning, I felt a certain uneasiness- physically (probably due to sleeping wild) and also spiritually. Being a human being, living in a tangible world, I began running down a list of things that would have my mind uneasy as I was sleep. Some matters of the past came to mind as well as new ones. So instead of dwelling on what made or caused the unrest I began searching for peace. The first thing that I did was listen to songs that were sent to me after choir rehearsals by the director. But I felt a conviction coming over me. This feeling was introduced to me by Pastor Bonita Cain who at the time also directed me to Psalms. So as I did then I also did again. I took up my Bible and read as I listen to classical piano selections. I felt that Psalms was a perfect choice seeing as how David, the great king, shepherd, and psalmist found himself in the same distress as myself.
During distress it is important first to keep ones head, so to speak. In all things, good and bad, we must remember that we can go to the Rock. David did so and was not as concerned about what was going on around him as much as God's promises. Because David had already experienced God's wonderful promises, during the times in which there were men seeking to kill him, David was giving God praise. It would have been easy for him to give up and speak anything but praise to God but he knew that if God rescued him from danger, unease, and distress once before, then He would do it again. David knew that God would keep his word. "Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you." Psalms 2:8-9 says, "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

If we serve the Lord with faith and fear he will not only deliver us from our enemies, problems, and obstacles, but He will give them to us that we may destroy them. The amazing realization in this revelation is that God, He who created all things, hears us! We lowly, who deserve nothing less than the full extent of God's wrath and chastisement, are heard! If we seek Him and turn away from the counsel of the ungodly we will be blessed and heard. If we turn away from the ungodly we are godly. David says in Psalms 4:3, "But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. The Lord will hear when I call into him." 2 Timothy 2:9 says, "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." Also we find in John 10:14 and 27 Jesus says,

"I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."
"My sheep hear my voice,and I know them, and they follow me."
In these verses, these instances show a proof or validation of a relationship. A relationship between a Shepherd and His sheep; the Lord and those that claim the name of Christ; David and God. Simply put, if we turn away from that which is ungodly, that which is not of God, and we claim the name of the Shepherd, claim the name if Jesus Christ, then if we cry out to Him, or we ask of Him, He will hear us!

There is another promise fulfilled also. Verses 14 and 27 speak of the relationship, but verses 15 and 28 speak of what manifests as a result of the relationship. These verses state respectively, "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I give unto them Eternal Life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

In closing, I would like to refer to Isaiah 53:4-6. "Surely He hath bourne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on
Him the iniquity of us all."

Blessings (pt. 2): Faith During Patience

Sometimes, in regards to blessings, we have to accept God's "there and then" instead of impatiently reaching for the "here and now." Gods timeframe and ours are vastly different. ("To Him a year is but one hour."-Marvin Sapp.) If we should become impatient, perhaps then we should consider having more faith and look toward the Bible to give examples of having and retaining faith while waiting on what is promised. Abraham was told that his loins would produce a great nation innumerable as the stars in the sky. It would take until the adulthood of his son for this to manifest. What God promises to you He will deliver. This is the time when our faith must be unshakable. For the enemy knows what is promised you and will stop at nothing to discourage you into cursing yourself away from the birthright of they that follow Jesus. "...that you may have life and have it more abundantly."-John 10:10.

Faith keeps us stayed on Him. A belief with no proof (faith) in that which is not seen (God), with patience and action will in time manifest itself into blessings. And at that moment we, the believers, must give praise and honor to God, as is our duty. Great things happen to believers as well as unbelievers, but it is our responsibility to acknowledge where these "good happenings" come from. Spread the Word to all. "The testing of your faith produces patience.-James 1:3. I heard it said that Gods delay is not His denial. God wants to bless us...abundantly. But we must have actively working faith, be ready to receive, and then give thanks and due praise to Him.
Be blessed and be a blessing!

Blessings (pt.1): Patiently Waiting

"I thought I had it planned out, a smile that made me stand out
With happiness that wasn't due to me, now I'm a man down."
These are the lyrics penned by myself during a trying time of spiritual transition. Many of us know of God but we don't KNOW Him. It is because of this that we must learn of Him and His ways by experiencing Him up close. We are thus put into a position to be pruned by our Gardener. We are His beautiful creation. He has sustained us and made us to grow and must prune us. It is said that the gardener is always closest to his plants when he is pruning. Therefore, in times of transition toward our blessings, God must remove people, characteristics and attitudes, mentalities, or anything of the sort that would hinder or prove to be unproductive. Yet remember. This is the time when He is closer to us. Perhaps to get a better look.
The Heavenly pruning yields a stronger Christian with eyes and hearts open to the possibilities of an All-Powerful Provider. Blessings will be easier attained as ones mind is more stayed on the Father. But these blessings are dispersed in the time frame and leisure of He who has planted us.
If we reach for that which puts a sparkle in our eye simply because we feel that we are ready or even more boldly, we feel it is due to us because of some arrogant distorted reasoning, we run a terrible risk of being instead cursed and our pathway toward blessings being tainted. A blessing from God has no strings attached, in that there is no compromising, just reception. Should a blessing feel that maintaining it causes questionable reciprocity via actions or thoughts, then sadly it is not a blessing.