Perpetual Spring!

I can’t believe that we are practically at the end of February already.  It seems like Christmas was just last week.  What’s exciting to me is that spring is less than one month away!  The Vernal Equinox is on March 20^th this year.  Then we can start dreaming about blooming flowers, summer gardens loaded with fresh to be picked vegetables, drinking cool glasses of lemonade as we sit in the patio enjoying the warm weather late into the evening… Ah!  I guess I’m getting ahead of myself here.  You can tell that I am a spring and summer person.

You know what though?  You can experience the same pleasure that the warm spring and summer days bring just about anytime of the year as you walk in the grace that God has for us in Christ Jesus.  In my study on grace over the last couple of weeks, I have come to realize a simple definition of what grace is.  I believe, that among other things, that grace is the divine influence of the infinite resources of God in our lives.  It’s that influence that brings peace to our souls when those tough situations arise.  It’s that influence that causes us to have favor with people when favor is needed.  It’s that influence that causes people, places or things to line up so that we can have a particular need met.  It’s that divine influence of the legal battle that Jesus won for us through His blood that enables us to gain salvation and health for our spiritual and physical beings.

But it doesn’t just come to you like ripe apples falling off a tree.  Like anything else in the kingdom of God, we have to seek it and then receive it by faith.  Remember that our scripture from yesterday in Hebrews 4:16 says that we have to “draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and we may find grace for timely help.”  (Literal Translation of the Holy Bible)  Then we can walk on in that confident EXPECTATION that assures us of receiving what we have asked for.  (Hebrews 11:1)  At that point you can sense His peace and experience the same kind of high that I do every time that I have taken a summer hike through a beautiful, wild flower studded alpine meadow in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in north eastern California.

That is the experience of God’s grace in your life!  That’s what it means to “be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”  (2 Timothy 2:1 NIV)  I would encourage you to take some time this weekend to draw near to His throne of grace and then experience His influence that will take you into the realm of His “exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think…”  (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV)  Have a great trip!  We’ll see you again on Monday.  In the mean time, stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”