Sinking....

I wonder if I have made all the right choices.  Nothing life changing going on... just wondering if I have always made the right decisions for myself and my family.  I'm not talking about just recent decisions, I'm talking about being almost haunted by choices I made 5 years ago, 7 years ago, and even longer in some cases.  And I've come to realize GRACE....

So here's my breakdown on grace....

"if grace is an ocean, we're all sinking"

Ocean is defined by BrainyQuote.com as an immense expanse; any vast space or quantity without apparent limits or a large body of water.  When FreeDictionary.com talks about sinking it says sinking as it relates to a ship is to "go to the bottom of the sea or some other body of water because of damage or a collision."

Grace is ultimately something I just don't completely understand.  I think even Merriam-Webster had a hard time really putting it into a box with one label.... their website lists it as a "virtue coming from God, unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification, or a disposition to or an act or instance of kindness."

So let's talk about my definition breakdown of that line from the song "How He Loves Us".  We sing this song often but do we really grasp on to what the lyricist was trying to tell us about God's love?  God's grace is so massive in size that they compared it to an ocean which is by definition without limits.  But there's a twist in this writer's analogy.  He says we are all sinking... this word sometimes has a negative connotation to it.  (This is where I love to have the actual definition of words verses what I think they mean.)  From what we learned previously, sinking is to go to the bottom of the sea or some other body of water because of damage.  So basically, God's grace is immense and it swallows up the damaged.  Think about it.  We need God's grace because we are imperfect and because so often we are damaged vessels due to mistakes or storms of life.  But God acts instantly and swallows up our pain and mistakes with his grace.

No one said sinking in grace was easy.

Grace is given to us for our regeneration and sanctification.  Changing and growing are sometimes hard.  It forces us to look at ourselves and evaluate what we have done... sometimes to even check our motives.  Maybe we even feel guilty that God encompasses us with His grace despite our ship being beat to pieces by our own mistakes.  But here's the deal... God's grace is free, it's given in complete love for us, and He WANTS to swallow us up in His grace just as the ocean would swallow up a sinking ship.  Not to destroy us, but to allow grace to regenerate and sanctify all of us... that we would soak up His grace all the way through our very being.

"I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way"

I don't have the time.... I refuse to spend my time thinking about what I should have done or what might have worked better.  God's grace and love are massive.  Massive enough to make up for all the things I might regret.  God has given me so much to work toward and so many to minister to that I can't sit and regret.  I must let his ocean of grace overtake me and I must sink in it.


Philippians 3:13-14 tells us, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Failed, I have done that... at least a thousand times.  God still loved me.... every time.

I will press on.  I won't look back.  I will sink in God's grace.

How available are you?

I'm so excited for church in the morning!  God has been speaking to me SO much lately.... hold, on... wait a minute... could it be that maybe I'm just listening more?  Yeah, I said it... I haven't always been the best when it comes to letting God do a lot of talking.  I'm completely a type A personality and I think I just wanted to tell God how it was going to be so that I still felt in control.  I do believe that God has really removed a lot of the need for control in my life.  I'm embracing the journey so much more instead of focusing on the agenda.

Last week, we had a guest speaker for the morning service.  He made one statement that stuck in my mind all week.  He said that God just needs us to make ourselves available to Him.  Whoa!  I spent the rest of the service thinking about how many times I have been so distracted with being busy and trying to make things happen on my own.  How many times could God have worked greater things in my life if I had just made myself available?

Last night we watched a movie that continued to make me want to see what God had in store for me.  A man who lived a life of drugs, crime, and alcohol accepts Christ as his Savior.  He learns about going to Africa to help missionaries.  While there, he goes to Sudan and sees all the children being taken by the rebels and using them for sex slavery, an army, and much more.  The civil war going on there didn't hinder this man from making a change.  He went home to the US and drew up plans for a church in his neighborhood and then plans for an orphanage near north Sudan.  At this point, I'm thinking that the change in his heart was amazing enough and I was just happy with seeing that take place in his life.  Oh what blessings would have been forfeited if I had been the one controlling this man's story.

He goes on to actually build the church and orphanage.  A lot of times he worked without financial help other than his own family's money.  He didn't sit on those plans that God gave him in the middle of the night.  He got up and put them into action.  While preaching at the church he founded one Sunday, he stated that God wasn't interested in your "good intentions".  What a statement.  But so true.

I want to encourage you to relinquish control of your story to God.  Don't decide when it all ends for you or when you have done enough.  Had this man stopped at just becoming a Christian, there would be thousands of children without shelter, food, education, and love.  If you decide when you're done, you cut short the blessings and miracles that God can perform through you.

Furthermore, if you have visions from God, don't sit on them.  Get up and get to work for the kingdom of God.  Most of us don't accomplish what God wants us to do for His kingdom because we just won't get up.  Some of us are just lazy.  Some of us like to come up with a list of excuses.  There is no limit to what my God can do!  So why make excuses for why He can't do something?  Make yourself available and see just what He can do through you!

The Bible tells us in James 2:17 that, "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."  If we have faith of a vision to happen, but we aren't willing to work toward it, then that faith AND vision is dead.

What do you have a vision for in your life?  Make yourself available to God to work that vision out until HIS end.  Does He want you to go to another country?  Get your passport ready!  Does He want you to start a business?  Draw up the business plan and put it into action!  Does He want you to preach?  Write a sermon!  Does He want you to witness?  Go talk to the lost!

Above all... DON'T stop when you think your vision has come to pass.  DON'T cut God off before HE is done.  He probably has a lot more in mind if we will just make ourselves ALWAYS available to Him.

Back to me and my listening skills for a moment.  I have made myself much more available to God lately.  Am I without problems?  No.  But I can see the glory of God in so much more lately.  I have seen Him work things out in crazy awesome ways just because I was listening and didn't stop when the flesh in me thought I was done.

Don't stop when your flesh says you are done.  Don't sit when your flesh says it can't be done.  Get up and do more than just have good intentions for the kingdom of God!