Amazing Grace

Greetings,

I want to let you all know that I am feeling better and have kept my fever down for 24 hours!  Mostly, I write this because my mother reads my blog, (my biggest fans her and Dad), and I know she will be happy when she reads I am feeling better.  Mom, if you are reading this on Friday I want to let you know I tried to call this morning and no one was home!  I love you!

During my journey home I have found that God amazes anew each day.  Look at today's verse of the day to the right and you will see what I mean.  If you are reading this on another day, go to Ephesians 2:8-9. Immediately follow my surgeries I was very down.  I was frustrated in thinking that my pain would never go away and the left side of my head would never have any feeling.  Guess what?  I was right, at least up to today.  My pain hasn't gone away and I don't have any feeling on the left side of my head.  So, what is different about me?  That's easy, amazing grace.

You've heard the old saying that "God may not give you everything you want bu He sure does give you everything you need".  I know exactly what that means.  I know that God may never relieve my pain or give me feeling back in my head.  He might also decide to never let me win the lottery or to lose the ten pounds I so desperately need (want) to lose.  I might never get those things but He does give me the grace to realize that as long as I concentrate on Him he will take care of me.

The great thing about that is that I don't deserve that type of love and attention.  You might not want to hear this but you don't either.  That is why it is called grace and mercy.  We don't deserve anything we receive from God because we are sinners.  Yet, thanks to Christ on the cross we have that grace and mercy everyday of our lives.

I don't know what you are going through today.  I don't know what life is throwing your way.  I do know this, God sent His son to die on a cross so that you and I might have a path back to the Father.  And if God is willing to give up His son and that son is willing to die for me then I have a responsibility to live the best life I can.  Pain may come and go and situations come up where you think you can't go on, but you can.   I did, and you can too.  Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.

I want to challenge you to look at the world with new eyes today.  Look at the world through the eyes of God and find it in your heart to give grace and mercy to someone else. Until tomorrow!

Blessings,

Derek