The Fullness of His Grace

Close-up of a crepe myrtle tree in our backyard. :-)
Close-up of a crepe myrtle tree in our backyard.

Why does God bless us so richly? This was the question I was asking myself as I drove home from the supermarket a short time ago. The past few days, God has been pouring out one blessing on me after another, and I am so grateful.

Yesterday, I received a letter in the mail informing me that I had been approved for a month of temporary disability. This was a process that I had been going through and praying about for the past several months. To be truthful, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to get approved. Finances have been very tight, and I have to admit, I was doubtful that God would provide. But He did, out of the fullness of His grace.

A second blessing entailed my having a conversation with our car insurance agent, which led to a discount in our rate of about one thousand dollars for the year. I was so thankful for God’s provision!

Then today, I went to the supermarket armed with two fifteen dollar gift cards from my Mom and several coupons. I wasn’t even keeping track of how much I was spending–I just grabbed what I needed and tried to be mindful of using the store discounts and the coupons that I had acquired. When I got up to the register and checked out, my bill–for everything that I had needed–came to under thirty dollars. So I was able to use the gift cards and still have a little left over!

I know these may seem like small things, but for me, I see God’s hand in these events. So often I focus on the negative circumstances or the difficult situations that I face–but today all I could do was praise God for His goodness.

Thank You, my loving heavenly Father!!!

From the fullness of his grace

we have all received

one blessing after another.

~John 1:16 (NIV)

I Make God Happy!

Today has been a good day, and I’m so thankful to God for how He has worked and for what He has enabled my family to accomplish. We loaded up a huge dumpster with construction material that was in our backyard, to hopefully start the process of making this space usable. We received so much help from family, that we were able to finish in one day what we were expecting to require a week to complete. Praise Him!

I can see His hand on me, and on my life. It’s not always glaringly obvious–on the contrary, a good amount of the time I must trust that He is with me and that He is working for good, even though I can’t see or feel it. But He spoke to me in a number of ways to encourage me today, and for this I am grateful.

The main reason I wanted to post to my blog tonight was to share what God taught me in His Word a short time ago. I will share the Scripture that I read, a few observations that I made, applications of those insights, and my prayer response to Him.

“The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save;

He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love,

He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

Observations: 1) God rejoices over me with gladness and singing. 2) He will quiet me with His love!

Applications: 1) I make God happy! He loves me! 2) God’s love for me is so amazing and overwhelming that when it envelops me, I am rendered speechless.

Father, thank You for Your limitless love for me. I thank You that You love me no matter what I do or how many times I mess up. Help me to make you happy today out of my love for You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Experiencing the Love of God

We are a part of the family of God–and so we belong with Him. There is no special ticket, no need to earn or prove ourselves. For better or worse, we have His name, His love, His loyalty, His acceptance.

And because of this we can have hope. He said that He is going to build a place for us–a place to belong where we can celebrate even more in the beauty of His creation.

So often, we want to please God so we seek to keep a list of holy rules or behaviors.

We strive and work and fret in our Christian life to do “God’s will.”

The truth is, we cannot do the will of God until we know and experience the love of God.

Accepting and living within this sweet comfort and security is the place we will find the strength to live our lives well in a fallen world.”

~Excerpt from You Are Loved — Embracing the Everlasting Love God has for Youby Sally Clarkson and Angela Perritt


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You Are Loved