08
Dec '18
Grace like Loretta
08
Dec '18
If I wanted to boast, I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away.
Each time He said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 2 Corinthians 12:6-9 NLT
Each Thanksgiving, I write about what I am truly thankful for. This year is an obvious choice although it is not what she would expect. I am so thankful for my wonderful wife, Loretta. She is amazing in so many ways. Things like … she is annoying. She can be both picky and difficult, and pushes me to do things when I really do not want to do them. She is so sweet and salty, my nickname for her is ‘Adorable Evilness.’ I often do not like her, and must work harder just to keep her happy. Here’s the thing. I have told her all of this! Now having said all that, here is where you will understand why I am so thankful of all of that. Plain and simple, she is tolerant of me, and to honest, I don’t think there is a more difficult role one could have than dealing with me. She has seen my flaws and the times where I fell short of being a good husband to her. Way short! She has seen the pain when I fail even when it did not affect her, and she stood by me when the world thought very little of me. In short, she is every bit the woman that Paul had in mind when he said, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.” (Ephesians 5:25-27 NLT) This alone could have been the title verses for my Devotional, but instead, I wanted to highlight one of her many attributes where she is a shining example to me of who God is in my life. That attribute is ‘grace.’
God’s grace is what we should be thankful for each and every day. Our love for God is what fuels our devotion to Him, and our obedience is a shining example of our following Him. However, it is grace that makes those things limitless. Imagine being locked up in a box that you are trapped in. You can feel the boundaries of it each time you reach out, and when you run, you feel restricted by its form and rigid laws. To try to break through it requires immense effort, but no matter how much strength, effort, logic, guile, or cunningness you possess, you cannot break through it. Picture those walls being labeled. Here are some of those labels: hate, inferiority, distrust, deception, gluttony, greed. Each wall has different names, but they fall under one huge box called sin. Furthermore, it’s wrapped with a bow called ‘temptation.’ If your troubles haunt you, the tape wrapping is called ‘shame’ or ‘guilt.’ Any one of them is wall enough to keep you boxed in. Then, imagine this explosion punching a hole in the walls that had you boxed in, and you walk out into a sunshine filled field with every beautiful thing you can imagine. The field seemingly lasts forever. To you, this is Heaven. That’s the power of God’s grace in a nutshell. You can’t get there without it. You may believe you can without Him, but eventually, you will hit one of those walls. God wants us all to have this amazing gift of grace. This is not to say you can’t build a wall between you and God (i.e. continually sinning without spiritual growth). However, what God really wants is your heart. Not your perfection. He wants your walk. Not your stagnation. He wants your obedience. Not your carelessness. And He wants an active growing relationship. Not a ritual checklist follower.
Grace is the overwhelming gift that frees us from our bondage. I love hearing the song ‘Grace Like Rain,’ because it is so visual in its description. It’s this torrential downpour where you can’t hide, and every part of your body feels it. It overwhelms, and cleanses you all over! I am so thankful for this grace God has given each and every one of us, and I am so thankful He gave me a wonderful woman who could truly show me what it is like to know what grace is. So, I humbly thank my wife for teaching me how wonderful it is to both be her husband and know who is the ‘better half.’ Who has been your example of God’s grace? How can you be a man or woman of grace? My prayer is that we are thankful to God’s grace as I am thankful for His grace like Loretta. Amen.
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Kent
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