Marvelous, INFINITE, wonderous…GRACE!!

By Misty Strieff Prine

            “Grace is when you get the good things you don’t deserve. Mercy is when you’re spared from the bad things you do deserve. God is generous with both.” – Unknown.

            "Mercy there was grace and grace was free. Pardon there was multiplied to me. There my troubled soul found liberty at Calvary." We all know those lyrics. We all have had and still have moments in our lives when we have felt so worthless. Our failures and rejection became too much to bear, and we find ourselves pulling away from everyone. In those moments, if we put all outside distractions aside and focus on the moment that God's grace and mercy found us, we would realize just how loved we truly are and have ALWAYS been...in-spite of how much we fail Him daily and those repeated valleys we find ourselves walking in because of them.

God's grace is a beautiful thing y’all. Grace is when we get the blessings in life that we totally don't deserve. Mercy is when we don't get what we totally deserve (thank you, Lord.) Can you imagine if God gave us what we deserved? That's a scary thought, isn't it? We serve a God of second chances. Sometimes He chooses to give us third, fourth and even more chances. Why is that?? God loves us so much. He loves us through our failures and when we reject Him. That's where mercy comes in. In those moments where we "think" we can do this life on our own terms and reject God at every turn, guess what? He's still there...waiting. He knows that there is going to come a time when we will see the error of our ways and how much we depend on Him. I think all the time how in the world people even remotely do this life without Him. There are so many people that are lost and dying today that do not know Him as their Lord and Savior. There are also a lot of people that have been saved but have drifted away from Him. Life got in the way, and they lost sight of Him. All those people have one thing in common. Their lives are tough...in shambles if you will. They are wondering why they are facing adversities in their lives at every turn. Life seems to get harder every single day.

If you find yourself in this boat today, I pray that you will examine your heart. Have you distanced yourself from Him? Maybe He's trying to get your attention, and you have just been too preoccupied and bullheaded to see it. God's mercy and grace are waiting on you, friend. All you have to do is say, "Lord, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Use my life as a testimony to others as to what You can do in their lives, just as You have mine. Here I am, Lord. Use me as you see fit." Friend, when you do that and you become willing, your life will take an amazing turn. You will realize how blessed you truly are and all of the blessings you have been missing all along. All you had to do is be open to receive God's mercy and grace. It's there for the taking. Take it and LIVE in it. Then put your seat belt on because your life is about to be amazing. Do you want to experience that in your life? All you must do is surrender your life to Him. He's waiting for you. Are you willing and ready?