Grace - The Name God Gave

       Grace is my name and I never quite grasp its meaning because there is too many.

• As always we give grace to others in order to give them time to complete a task.
•We say grace to give thanks to the Lord for the food we are about to partake.
• Ladies dressed with poise and grace to exude their outer beauty.
• A ballet dancer dances with grace across the stage.
• We are graced with the presence of people we love into our homes.
•God's grace is His unmerited favour.

     Most recent I heard is Jesus is Grace. There is one thing I cannot deny which is the word or name Grace although common because people love the name, has an elegance and simplicity to its name.

      I am Grace since birth, a name bestowed to me by my parents. I have been told and assured by a pastor who prayed over me, who doesn't know me at all that God chose that name for me. Why was it significant to tell me,God? And as I too look back, I can't help but felt like the name did embrace me and slowly made me its home. I suppose this is something personal to me. Among all the meaning of grace, the most profound and meaningful to me is God's Grace, the unmerited favour.

        Just as a bullet is about to reach your beating heart, in the nick of the time, Jesus stands over you and took the bullet in His. That bullet might have been an accusation, a bad curse, a sickness, misfortune that was supposed to enter into your life,but Jesus changes the scenario and took the pain you were meant to take. Do we deserve such gracious treatments at times?

        One syllable, one word, short and sweet yet powerful. We are saved by grace and I constantly try to remember to thank God for His unmerited favour, for I do not want to take His grace for granted.

Hidden Your Word

Head knowledge does not suffice but heart knowledge will brings us beyond words and experiences that transform us from the inside out.

The grace of God enables us to live more than a conqueror and to live in abiding with the Lord. Ps. 119:11 speaks not about literal hiding but an imagery that speaks that God's word is alive within us and as we apply and do what He teaches, it becomes a weapon ( the sword of the spirit) to fight against sin of our flesh. "the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak", and that is something we face everyday, every hour, every minute and only Him can work through us to overcome. The Word is He and He is living inside of us. Isn't that incredibly awesome? What we cannot do, He can do through us and for us, if we just submit.

Splashes Of Grace

The title of this blog was inspired by this letter below and therefore the birth of this blog. How a trickle, a splash, or a river of God's grace does for us each day if we were to look out for them. It's everywhere and within our lives. No matter what mountains we face or valleys we are in, there is a silver lining in the dark clouds called grace, the grace of God. It was never meant to be taken for granted but to strengthen us, and it will overflow to the people around us.I thank God for a wonderful article i received from All Worship inspirational email.

SPLASHES OF GRACE

(Note: This is a letter that one of AllWorship's readers wrote to a close friend who was going through a very difficult time.)

My dear friend,

How are you, sweetie? I wanted to share an adventure with you that the girls and I had last week.

We were walking down by the water in the gully behind our house, when suddenly, a doe came crashing through the woods, headed directly towards us! It was so wild! She came to a skidding stop on her knees, right into a rotten
tree stump that was directly in front of me.

I could have reached out and touched her! She fell over on her side, jumped to her feet and ran off in the opposite direction. It was hard to tell who was more startled - the doe, or us!

Pretty awesome, huh? I felt like it was a gift from God, the experience as well as not getting slammed by a terrified, frantic 100-pound deer! I call these kinds of experiences "splashes of grace", because they are evidence to me of God's love and grace towards me, and they come unexpectedly, usually at times when I really need them. I have learned to keep my eyes open for them. They are easy to miss.

But in really hard times, when these "splashes" happen, they provide moments of joy and wonder, and when we are in pain all the time, even a few minutes of happiness can make the difference between making it and not!

For a second, while the deer is crashing towards me or the pansy petals are soft against my face or the brilliant red cardinal is lighting up my dull winter backyard or the chocolate is melting in my mouth or the smell of patchouli is steaming up from my bath...for a second I am not the hurting one, the sick one, the broken, wounded one...for a second, I am simply a beloved child of God receiving a splash of His love, meant especially for me.

I know that you are hurting badly, and I cannot imagine what turmoil and pain you are going through. I am praying that you will receive splashes of grace to equal your need, that God will provide moments of wonder just for you, to remind you of your true and eternal identity.

There is no question that, for now, you are broken and wounded. But that part of who you are is a layer, not the whole thing, and it will be peeled off in time, to reveal who you have always been, and still are and always will be...a beloved child of God, the daughter of the King, a citizen of Heaven, spotless and pure before the throne of your Father, God.

Splashes of grace poke through the layer of pain to reveal who you really are. Who you are when you are staring in awe at the prettiest flower you ever saw, or tasting the best cheesecake in existence, or melting under the butterfly kisses of a toddler...that's who you are. Splashes of grace help us remember, when the pain has stolen all memory of better days. They are God's way of bringing us to ourselves, when we think that we'll never be anything other than broken and crushed.
And most importantly, they are God's way of bringing us to Himself.

In days when most of our contact with Him consists of anguished questions and agonizingly desperate pleas for help, splashes of grace are God's way of scooping us into His arms and saying "Look, daughter...do you see it? A butterfly, just for you! Isn't it lovely? Look at it's wings. Aren't they soft? Amazing, isn't it?"

Splashes of grace are you and God looking out on the wonder of creation for a moment, in a way that allows you both to respond to what you are seeing freely, unhampered by the struggle that you are in. It may only last a moment. But what a moment!

Dearest friend, look for them. Maybe you already have been. In the darkest place, God is. And where God is, splashes of grace happen. I love you, precious child of the King.

--Kelly Stevenson