May God give you more and more grace and peace as
you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
2 Peter 1:2 NLT ❤ (Passage on Bible Gateway)

EMBRACING HIS GRACE

While at work one morning, I found myself with free time when a patient didn’t show for his appointment. So I wandered up to the reception desk to see if I could help answer the phone or check a few patients in.

The front desk staff were in the middle of pulling patient records for the next day. So I went to the pile of printed provider sheets and grabbed the top one, which belonged to one of our techs named Haley. As I studied her list of patients for the next day, she happened to walk through the door to the receptionist area.

My cell phone was softly streaming worship songs in the pocket of my scrubs as I began to hunt for Haley’s records. I was focused and quietly singing along so it took me a minute to snap back to reality and realize that Haley was not in a good mood.

She was in fact speaking to one of my friends in a very disrespectful tone. After dropping a few F-Bombs, she stormed out to call for her patient from the waiting area. I watched as Haley walked past the front desk window, joyfully escorting a patient back to the treatment room.

It literally made me ill to witness how quickly she could smile and make small talk with the patient, immediately after treating my sweet friend so badly. For years, God had been dealing with the pride in my heart.

I was getting a little better at wielding my shield of faith to keep cutting remarks from piercing my own heart.

But when I witness someone I care for getting attacked, I morph into this crazy person. On this particular morning, Satan baited me with the offense and I quickly went from joyfully singing worship songs to wanting to punch Haley in her throat!

Now isn’t that just awful? I know none of y’all have ever felt like that.

I was fed up with mean people. Needless to say, I was mad. I changed my mind about helping out and went to return Haley’s list to the stack I originally retrieved it from so I could leave. As I walked past the monster shredder along the back wall, I felt meanness overtake me and I flipped the on switch. I was about to drop Haley’s list down into the shredder’s teeth when the Holy Spirit whispered this question to me, “Can I trust you, Donna?”

For the next few minutes, I wrestled with Jesus behind the file cabinet. I felt justified for my anger, as if He hadn’t seen the whole ugly scene play out with His own eyes. Haley’s repeated rudeness was uncalled for and I finally had a few words to unleash on her! Gently He asked me again, “Can I trust you, Donna?”

Uggh …

The next five minutes were a blur.

I was obedient on the outside but everything was screaming on the inside where Jesus quietly observed my heart. And I was definitely aware of Him watching me as I tried to kill my flesh. I finished pulling all of Haley’s records. Rubber banding them together (not with love, I have to add), I tossed them onto the next day’s stack.

Deciding I had enough, I walked out of the reception area to go back to my treatment room. As the door closed behind me, God dropped down in my spirit; “Donna, can two walk together unless they are in agreement? If I want to bless someone, will you try to stop Me?”

The Lord’s sweet voice ALWAYS disarms me. I thought I was the one all tangled up in trying to help Haley, not Him. But whenever we do anything for the least of these, we are doing it unto Him.

Just as quickly as I repented, He flooded me with His grace. I always thought Amos 3:3 applied to close friendship or marriage, but I never thought to connect it to my walk with Jesus.

You already know this but we will never meet ANYONE on this side of eternity that Jesus doesn’t love like CRAZY every single minute of every single day!

I was mad at Haley for being so hateful to a friend I cared about. How I must break Jesus’ heart when I burn with anger at someone He loves so much.

I am a very visual person. I can see Jesus in His white robe and sandals as He walks beside me along a dusty path. As He slows down to reach His hand out to touch someone I happen to be (ahem) disgruntled with, He can feel my distress. How can He not? Jesus is all about the heart. If I proceed to wrestle with Him within my heart about blessing this person, I might as well be slapping His hand. The Law says that we should not kill. But 1 John 3:5 says anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer at heart.

Religion tries to reign in our behavior from the outside.
But Grace raises the bar and cuts straight to the heart.

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To walk with Jesus is becoming ‘one’ with Him.

It means embracing ALL of HIS heart and all of HIS GRACE! We will never get this perfectly in this lifetime, but what a beautiful thing to strive for.

The greatest challenge for me is the breaking of my own will to keep in step with Jesus and His heart. The more I can do that, the less I leave Jesus standing there in my dust as I take off on my little rabbit trails to throw my fits.

He definitely doesn’t ‘need’ me to do anything. He ‘wants’ to use me to touch others. I don’t want Him to have to find someone else to do something He originally called me to do. Instead of striving to get our way, let us completely receive His grace for us and extravagantly release His grace to others. May we never rise up to stop this supernatural flow. What peace and joy wait for us as we begin to come into agreement with God. Agreeing with Him that He knows what He is doing at all times and doesn’t need our help. Even when the situation seems out of control.

How quickly I forget the Grace He has generously poured out on me.

I know I’ve annoyed some people in my lifetime. Thank You, Jesus, that You didn’t allow my enemies to slap Your hand away when You reached out to save my scrawny neck.

When I look back on that particular day, I search for the moment where God seemed angry with me because I was angry, and I can’t find anything. The Lord doesn’t get mad because we have emotions. But He patiently reaches out to guide us to not sin when we feel angry. It is in those moments we must yield to His Spirit and go into prayer.

In Matthew 5:44 Jesus teaches us to pray for our enemies. He’s helping us to guard our hearts. When we yield to Him in our moment of distress and pray on behalf of our enemies, He keeps our hearts soft (and teachable) and our anger from turning to hate. Our hearts remain open to hear from God and we are protected from the evil one. When we give in to anger, we fling the door wide open for the enemy and we struggle to hear our Lord’s voice.

We may think that grace was not revealed until the New Testament. But God demonstrated incredible grace when He reached out to Cain before the first murder was recorded in the Bible. God knew what Cain was about to do and He tried to warn him. He does the same with us today. Not that we would commit murder. But remember what Jesus said about hate?

‘Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do
what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is
crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”’
Genesis 4:6-7 NIV (Passage on Bible Gateway)

Isn’t that an alarming thought? Sin is crouching at our door and it desires to have us.

We can get so caught up in day to day activity and not even realize we could be mere moments from witnessing a God sized breakthrough. If we are quick to let satan steer us in our anger, we can miss our opportunity to partner with God in His plans. We must pause and ask ourselves .. who are we truly walking in agreement with?

Hurting people hurt people in this broken world where so many are living in spiritual darkness. Even though I know that, I still find myself caught off guard when it happens. But I can honestly say I’m thankful I can still be shocked because I don’t ever want to become so callused that I no longer feel the sting when I witness injustice. But at the same time, I can’t trust my own misguided feelings to lead me to do what’s right.

Our God knows how to execute justice fairly. The battle is His, not ours.

Our God is also extremely merciful, willing to forgive all who repent and return to Him. He has paid the greatest price to save every soul and He is looking and waiting for the lost to respond. May we not get in His way today …

‘Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming
the good news of the Kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds,
He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a
Shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”’
Matthew 9:35-38 NIV (Passage on Bible Gateway)

Let’s pray together …

Father God, we are Your Disciples. Send us, Lord! You promised in 2 Peter 1:2 that You would give us more and more grace and peace as we grow in our knowledge of You, Lord! Help us to know You more intimately so we can experience more of Your grace and peace today! Please give us Your unfailing compassion for other people. A compassion that trumps our agenda and our need to always settle the score! Lord Jesus, help us to see with Your eyes and feel with Your heart. Holy Spirit, have Your way in us today!

In Jesus’ Name … ❤

Much Love and prayers,

❤

Embracing His Grace @ freshgracefortoday.com

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