Yesterday was a rough day.
A couple of hours sleep the night before led to a day of difficulty focusing and silly mistakes. A couple of discouraging phone calls dampened the day further. A letter in the mail broke my heart. Refereeing sibling conflict took energy that I didn’t have, and two quite sick children had me scurrying to the store late at night for medicines that I should have had already in my medicine cabinet. And everywhere I looked, I saw and felt grief and weariness.
So I went to bed defeated last night, but sleep wouldn’t come.
As I lay there I found myself thinking about Grace. Amazing Grace. I found myself pleading with God for grace. I turned to scripture to try to find the words that my soul was trying to express to my God, and I found it amidst the Psalms: (Psalm 86)
6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.
7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me.
Give ear O Lord to my prayer……..Hear me O Lord as I lay here and pray to you, and plea to you for grace. Because grace is what I need. Grace is what we all need. Everyday of our lives.
The manifestation of His favor upon our lives. Undeserved favor. Undeserved love.
Where did God even create the concept of grace? If grace is something He grants, is it also something that He is? We know that God is love, is He grace as well?
It is only by His grace that we would ever have the faith to believe. It is only by His grace that we can stand fast (1 Thess 3:8-10). Even in the midst of suffering and grief, we have the amazing fortitude to stand fast due to grace. This grace is beyond our understanding, I think it’s impossible for us to wrap our minds around such a gift. I know that I can’t.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
What a beautiful passage. The Word becoming flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, to dwell among us, full of GRACE and TRUTH. And from His fullness, we have and continue to and will continue to receive grace upon grace upon grace. This grace and truth come through my Jesus, through your Jesus.
O how I need grace upon grace. And God grants it, even when I don’t see it. He grants it in moments of clarity and peace. He grants it is sweet moments of rest and sleep. He grants it when His mercies are new every morning.
“Father God, Hear my plea for grace. Grant me grace in parenting, when I seem to be failing miserably. Give me the grace I need in order to believe the truth of who you are and to have the faith to trust solely in You. God, teach us to recognize your grace and to not fail in thanking you for it. Give us the strength to grasp a hold of that grace as an anchor in the stormy, tossing waves, knowing it is your Grace that provides respite in the storm. Grant me grace O Abba. Grant us grace, dear Father.”