"and I will pour out a spirit of grace..." (zechariah 12:10, nlt).
the other morning i woke with an expression running through my head...grace us with Your presence...
it was sunday when i had this thought. on facebook and twitter i was getting people's updates about being excited to go to church, people happy it was sunday, people looking forward to the day, and so on. in church circles, people often quote verses about being glad to go into the house of the Lord, about one day with the Lord being better than a thousand elsewhere, etc., and songs get sung at the start of service inviting God to meet with us, like "welcome into this place." when we pray in a service, we invite God's presence to fill and saturate and inundate the building and our being.
in effect, we're asking God to grace us with His presence. now, make no mistake, He needs no invitation since He's everywhere present and nowhere absent, but in our limited way of expressing ourselves, we ask God to honour us with His presence...which He does...over and over again...gracious sakes, He's generous with His grace :-)
but this figure of speech struck me in a more profound way this morning, because really, it's what God does over and over again...He literally graces us with His presence. not just gracing us with His presence by merely and predictably showing up in a service or when we need Him, but by making grace available to us.
the way i see it, it's like He stands with a big bucket full of grace and it washes over us time and time again. time and time again He gives us what we don't deserve. the bible says "He gives more grace" (james 4:6). He actually graces us when we meet with Him! think about it. He applies His grace to our lives like a covering...not so that we can keep doing the same stupid things over and over again and expect to be forgiven, thereby taking His grace for granted and abusing it, but so that we'll be kept from doing the same things over and over again, all the while knowing that if we slip, He'll be there to catch us. so, while His grace is provided to us and poured out on us--just to be clear--it's not provisional in that it's a license to do whatever we want.
there's a song--which i could have googled to verify and to ensure accuracy, because c'mon, of course the internet is accurate :-)--but the verse ends with "grace flows down and covers me." it's title might even be "grace flows down," i think. and that's the point. grace flows down and covers. and one more time i'm graced by His presence.
"we don't see things as they are. we see things as we are."--anaïs nin. like the title indicates, this blog's a place where i write about my various points of view, seen through the lens of me--largely inspired by faith, family, friends...real life, basically... i invite you to read what i have to say and say something back. feedback and constructive criticism are always welcome here!
6/03/2011
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"stewart" suite--a bit about me
- t-lstewart
- here, there, everywhere, Canada
- blogger, cancer fighter, cbc-er, cleaner, daughter, doer, dog lover, iphone lover, ipod updater, leukemia fighter, listener, loner, organizer, reader, road tripper, sharer, singer, sister, surfer, texter, thinker, watcher, writer, worker
I cry when I think about the grace of Jesus for any length of time,I have no words with which I might praise him the way he is worthy of.So I do only what I can,which is present my while life as a sacrifice to him! Awesome stuff Teri-Lyn!!!
ReplyDeleteYou know, the more time we spend in his presence, the more we realize our dependence on him because of the grace of God that is working in us as we grow in him. Sure we should be excited to get to church but myself and many others get excited every day as we spend time with the one we are going to spend eternity with. He is my very best friend.
ReplyDeleteThis may be your best one yet. He DOES pour out His Grace on us.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. This one touched me deeply. Thank you.
ReplyDeletevery thought provoking, thank you.
ReplyDelete