If I wanted to boast,
I would be no fool in doing so, because I would be telling the truth. But I
won’t do it, because I don’t want anyone to give me credit beyond what they can
see in my life or hear in my message, even though I have received such wonderful
revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in
my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can
work through me. 2 Corinthians 12:6-9 NLT
Each Thanksgiving, I write about what I am truly thankful
for. This year is an obvious choice
although it is not what she would expect.
I am so thankful for my wonderful wife, Loretta. She is amazing in so many ways. Things like … she is annoying. She can be both picky and difficult, and
pushes me to do things when I really do not want to do them. She is so sweet and salty, my nickname for
her is ‘Adorable Evilness.’ I often do
not like her, and must work harder just to keep her happy. Here’s the thing. I have told her all of this! Now having said all that, here is where you
will understand why I am so thankful of all of that. Plain and simple, she is tolerant of me, and
to honest, I don’t think there is a more difficult role one could have than
dealing with me. She has seen my flaws
and the times where I fell short of being a good husband to her. Way short!
She has seen the pain when I fail even when it did not affect her, and
she stood by me when the world thought very little of me. In short, she is every bit the woman that
Paul had in mind when he said, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just
as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her to make her holy and
clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to Himself
as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead,
she will be holy and without fault.” (Ephesians
5:25-27 NLT) This alone could have been
the title verses for my Devotional, but instead, I wanted to highlight one of
her many attributes where she is a shining example to me of who God is in my
life. That attribute is ‘grace.’
God’s grace is what we should be thankful for each and every
day. Our love for God is what fuels our
devotion to Him, and our obedience is a shining example of our following
Him. However, it is grace that makes
those things limitless. Imagine being
locked up in a box that you are trapped in.
You can feel the boundaries of it each time you reach out, and when you
run, you feel restricted by its form and rigid laws. To try to break through it requires immense
effort, but no matter how much strength, effort, logic, guile, or cunningness
you possess, you cannot break through it.
Picture those walls being labeled.
Here are some of those labels: hate, inferiority, distrust, deception,
gluttony, greed. Each wall has different
names, but they fall under one huge box called sin. Furthermore, it’s wrapped with a bow called
‘temptation.’ If your troubles haunt you,
the tape wrapping is called ‘shame’ or ‘guilt.’
Any one of them is wall enough to keep you boxed in. Then, imagine this explosion punching a hole
in the walls that had you boxed in, and you walk out into a sunshine filled
field with every beautiful thing you can imagine. The field seemingly lasts forever. To you, this is Heaven. That’s the power of God’s grace in a
nutshell. You can’t get there without
it. You may believe you can without Him,
but eventually, you will hit one of those walls. God wants us all to have this amazing gift of
grace. This is not to say you can’t
build a wall between you and God (i.e. continually sinning without spiritual
growth). However, what God really wants is
your heart. Not your perfection. He wants your walk. Not your stagnation. He wants your obedience. Not your carelessness. And He wants an active growing relationship. Not a ritual checklist follower.
Grace is the overwhelming gift that frees us from our
bondage. I love hearing the song ‘Grace
Like Rain,’ because it is so visual in its description. It’s this torrential downpour where you can’t
hide, and every part of your body feels it.
It overwhelms, and cleanses you all over! I am so thankful for this grace God has given
each and every one of us, and I am so thankful He gave me a wonderful woman who
could truly show me what it is like to know what grace is. So, I humbly thank my wife for teaching me how
wonderful it is to both be her husband and know who is the ‘better half.’ Who has been your example of God’s
grace? How can you be a man or woman of
grace? My prayer is that we are thankful
to God’s grace as I am thankful for His grace like Loretta. Amen, and Happy
Thanksgiving!
