Grace - by Bec Bonython

Be encouraged to accept and embrace God's grace as we do life - with all its ups and downs and roundabouts!

Nothing challenges us more about our beliefs and theology than when we go through a catastrophe, through pain, illness and suffering. Through the dying of a loved one cancer, or stroke or when we hear about young children being abused and neglected. When we face difficulties we can often ask ourselves:

• Do we really believe God is strong and faithful?

• Is He as good as I’ve always been told?

• Am I really living an authentic life of faith?

• Is heaven a reality? Is prayer effective?

• Does God really hear? Where is God now? Why does he allow this to happen?

Catastrophe, pain or suffering can be a means of grace. Grace signifies the good-will of God towards us, and that is enough to enlighten and enliven us, sufficient to strengthen and comfort in all our pain and distress. It is often by the grace of a catastrophe that people may come to have a real and true encounter with God, because it blows away any abstracts of theory and gives meaning and purpose to our walk.

In no way am I discounting the tough times that we face. They are gut wrenching, confidence dashing and emotionally draining. They are stressful and can feel as if our heart has been physically ripped out from us. But what is important when faced with these situations is our response to God. We have a choice in how we respond. Will these testing time make our hearts hard or will we work at keeping them soft towards God so that we can come out of these valley times with confidence in God and with a newer understanding of who He is.

God doesn’t simply want us to feel good, He wants us to be good. And very often the road to being good involves not feeling good.

We become very vulnerable when we are in pain. We can become fragile and insecure when we are wounded or hurting. What we believe about God and about His kingdom suddenly becomes very significant, very practical, very real and sometimes we don’t get the luxury of keeping it superficial.

During these times, the voice of God whispers in our souls, “Love Me, worship Me, trust Me.” He says to us - My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness (2 Cor 12:9 The Message). But His soft words can sometimes be hard to hear over the loud voices that invade and prevail our minds—voices that scream at us to put God down, ignore Him and turn away from Him and to satisfy our souls with temporal gratifications.

Still, Jesus calls us to come close, to cuddle into Him and rest in His love and in the certainty of His goodness and His sovereign power. He invites us to take comfort in all that He has promised to be— our Saviour, friend, healer, lover. Through it all we need to know and embrace this truth – that the Lord is with us. “God will not always deliver us from trouble and heartache, but He has promised grace for every situation of life and will be with us.”—By Fred W. Parsons.

A couple of bible examples give us comfort that through their suffering God was present. We know these bible stories well:

· God did not spare Paul and Silas the suffering and imprisonment, but He did come down into the prison with them. (Acts 16:16-40)

· God did not keep Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego out of the fiery furnace, but He went into the furnace with them. (Dan 3:16-28)

· God did not keep Joseph out of jail but He was with him in the jail. (Gen 39 and 40)

If we choose to maintain a soft heart towards God, then our catastrophe can become for us a special grace-gift, allowing us to enter into a place where we can experience God in ways we never imagined before.

The decision though, as always, is ours.

May you be encouraged today, through whatever life is throwing at you right now, to hang onto God. Move closer into Him. Acknowledge the truth that God sees all and hears all. He IS with you. He DOES care. He is STRONG even though we are feeling weak. Today His GRACE is made freely available to you, so go ahead, accept it.