Covered By Grace

Ephesians 2:8 - For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Because of our faith in God, He has extended His unmerited favor and love to us.

How awesome is this?  How awesome is He?  His grace has us covered.  When we seek His forgiveness and truly repent of our sins, He gives us grace.  This of course does not mean we have a blank check to sin repeatedly (see Romans 6), but it does mean that when we do mess up (and we will), honest confession and repentance of our sin will cleanse us.

Before I really understood grace, I was convinced that there were some things that I just could not be forgiven for.  I am sure there a lot of us who have felt this way from time to time as well.  I would say to God, "Well what about - GRACE..."  "Well surely you couldn't mean - GRACE..." " Okay, I've got you stumped on this one, how about - GRACE..."

During the time I've spent reading the Bible, it seems to me that the one thing that God desires above others, is a true heart.  A heart that truly desires Him.  When we really begin to trust in His promises and His grace, our heart becomes one that is free from the guilt we put on ourselves.  The guilt that others try to put on us.  And the guilt that the enemy tries to remind us of regularly.  We break free from that guilt when we take our problems, worries, and sins to God in prayer, ask for His forgiveness, and repent.  After that, we're covered by grace.  He won't remember them or ever bring them up again.  We could say, "Well remember that time - I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT..." "Yeah, but remember how I - NOT A CLUE..." "Okay, there's no way you forgot about - DON'T REMEMBER A THING..."  The one thing He will always remember is that He loves us, and He wants us with Him in eternity.  He extends His grace to cover us, now we just have to start accepting it.

Dear Abba Father, thank You so much for Your love and Your grace.  I have been so blessed to learn about You and Your ways through some amazing teaching at my church and through my quiet times with You.  I pray for Your continued presence in my heart and in my life, so that I may know You more intimately until the day I am with You in Heaven.  I pray for those that haven't been able to believe that Your grace covers them when they confess and repent.  My prayer is that they will no longer allow the lies of the world and the enemy to convince them that they aren't good enough.  They are good enough, because You have already said so, long before they were ever born.  I pray that they will realize that You have set them apart.  In Jesus' name, Amen!



God Bless!!!