Grace ---Nothing More To Say

II Corinthians 12:9
And He (God) said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast of my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

No theology lesson here today.
No broad strokes of intellect to paint a picture of who God is, and what He is capable of doing.
Just some truth.
There is more to "Grace" than we truly understand.
Grace is a force.
Grace is a power.
Grace is God at work in me.
Working in me, not from a distance, but hands-on.
The infinite one working in the psyche, the spirit, the soul of a "mud-man" created by His loving hand.
Trace my heritage back and you'll wind up in a garden, to a pile of dirt assembled by God in what would become the first human.

I always refer back to James Ryles definition of grace that has had such an impact on my life. He defines Grace as:
"The empowering presence of God in my life, that enables me to be who God created me to be, and to do all that God has called me to do."
The one thing I am so grateful for in this definition of grace is that it has an open ended feel to it. Much like a lot Scripture we read. Open ended in that it does not actually give a list of "things" to which Grace will cover. Grace enables me to be who God created me to be. That is open ended.

Notice that the first part of the Grace definition is about me "BEING". Existing. Living. My Purpose. It all falls under the presence and power of Grace at work in my life. In God's eyes "Being" is much more important than "Doing". How can I "Do" what God has called me to do unless I am that person He created to do it? We tend to get the cart before the horse. Somehow we think if we run around "Doing" a bunch of stuff, that somehow will create in us a divine identity and a stamp of approval from God Himself. Nope, doesn't work that way. I can do all manner of stuff for the Kingdom, and yet my heart can be dark with sin. That my friend, is called being religious, and the last time I checked (and I may be wrong about this) Jesus had a real problem with the religious folk last time He walked this planet.

Grace isn't just the presence of God...
But rather the empowering presence of God. What this means is that God uses His nature, His character, His power and authority when ever He comes to us. I can't even fathom a power so great that it has the capability to change the human heart. A power so vast that it can transform the human will and character, molding it into a new creature. Removing old ways and old thoughts and making every thing new with in the person. 

This is the kind of power needed to break free from the darkness of addiction.
It is our own dark will that directed our choices.
We willingly went into that prison and shut the door on ourselves.
With each high...
With each drink...
We place brick upon brick until we were walled in.
Shut off from the light of God, we thought this to be normal. We thought that everyone lived like this.
That is the power of a lie when it becomes truth to a twisted mind.
But then Grace...
Grace came...the empowering presence of God.
It started with one drop....a thought...a single thought...
Maybe nothing more than a faint thought of the name of Jesus....
So that thought moved from our heart to our mind, and from our mind it formed in our mouth.
Air from our lungs pushed up and the name of Jesus rolled off our tongues and became sound. With our own ears, we heard ourselves say, "Jesus! Help me."
Even though our dark hearts fought against us saying that name, it came forth. Why? Because the Grace of God is greater than any dark thought our heart may conceive. 

With this cry for help came more drops of God's grace.
We continued to cry out in spite of not seeing anything change.
The drops turned into a rain of God's Spirit.
The rain became a deluge greater than our human heart could hold.
In the midst of this heavenly downpour, we realize our need of God's grace.
The reality of Step #2 and Step #3 open the door as we turn will and live over to God. Life begins to from in us. Life, real life from God, and the prison we build with all our bad choices, cannot coexist. So the prison begins to be dismantled, brick by brick, until we stand bathed in the presence of this God who has freed us.

To some, what I have written this morning sounds like a fairy tale. A feel-good cliche'. But to us who have experienced the grace of God, it is a reality that will never be defeated by those who choose not to believe.

Grace is more than a prayer over supper.
It is more than the words on some poster.
Grace is a force.
Grace is a power.
Grace is God Himself.

God on you...
mb