Day 2: GRACE
2. Grace
Grace: The free and unmerited favor of God. When cancer enters your world there are so many life changes. I actually still wake up most mornings, open my eyes, and think to myself, "if this all for real?" I didn't deserve this? Why did this become mine? my kids? my husbands? Asking those questions gets me nowhere but Grace has changed EVERYTHING. He already knows my heart, my fears, and my thoughts, and he meets me with grace that I could not ever understand or earn.
So many have come along side of us. So many that have given advice. So many that have shared their stories. So many that just plan don't understand unless they have been through this same. I have learned Grace. I have learned how to accept people for who God made them. I have learned to take heart advice and support in the ways people know how to give it, because that is God working in and though them. I have learned that Grace is a gift that not only I've learned to understand more, but that I've learned to give. I have intensity appreciated kind words of gentle friends. I have fallen in love with hearing the stories of the fingerprints of God in others lives. I have been blessed to understand others more deeply in their way of love giving and providing. God gave his love and grace underserving to me, and now I have accepted that meaning in my life so much more deeply. So instead of living by way of ignoring those I don't want to learn to love, I now can love someone for who God created them to be and not who I want them to be for me or for any of us. I want to be more of this still. I want this to be my heart-song. Grace-filled, loving, like Jesus.
"May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." 2 Peter 1:2
"My GRACE is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all there gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Cor. 12:9
Grace comes free because of who God is in us. I have learned that he loves me not because of anything I've ever done or deserve, but loves me because I am me, the Joanna he created me to be. The messed up lost kid, the athlete, the wife, the mom, the cancer survivor, and now the grace filled women of God. I will be this everyday, I will fail often and struggle through this life much, but grace will always meet me. "In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us"- Francis Chan. I've always been this evolving person, he's just used this part of my journey in the past year to allow me to see many thing more clear. How to fully accept and give grace. Try it, you will be blessed. See the goodness, accept the gifts, love God's people. Everyone is underserved, live to be more like Jesus. We will fail together often, but we can always get up and give again.
"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." 1 Peter 4:10
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.— John 1:16
Grace: The free and unmerited favor of God. When cancer enters your world there are so many life changes. I actually still wake up most mornings, open my eyes, and think to myself, "if this all for real?" I didn't deserve this? Why did this become mine? my kids? my husbands? Asking those questions gets me nowhere but Grace has changed EVERYTHING. He already knows my heart, my fears, and my thoughts, and he meets me with grace that I could not ever understand or earn.
"Let Me bless you with My grace and Peace. Open your heart and mind to receive all that I have for you. Do not be ashamed of your emptiness. Instead, view it as the optimal condition for being filled with My Peace.It is easy to touch up your outward appearance, to look as if you have it all together. Your attempts to look good can fool most people. But I see straight through you, into the depths of your being. There is no place for pretense in your relationship with Me. Rejoice in the relief of being fully understood. Talk with Me about your struggles and feelings of inadequacy. Little by little, I will transform your weaknesses into strengths. Remember that your relationship with Me is saturated in grace. Therefore, nothing that you do or don’t do can separate you from My Presence." Jesus Calling
So many have come along side of us. So many that have given advice. So many that have shared their stories. So many that just plan don't understand unless they have been through this same. I have learned Grace. I have learned how to accept people for who God made them. I have learned to take heart advice and support in the ways people know how to give it, because that is God working in and though them. I have learned that Grace is a gift that not only I've learned to understand more, but that I've learned to give. I have intensity appreciated kind words of gentle friends. I have fallen in love with hearing the stories of the fingerprints of God in others lives. I have been blessed to understand others more deeply in their way of love giving and providing. God gave his love and grace underserving to me, and now I have accepted that meaning in my life so much more deeply. So instead of living by way of ignoring those I don't want to learn to love, I now can love someone for who God created them to be and not who I want them to be for me or for any of us. I want to be more of this still. I want this to be my heart-song. Grace-filled, loving, like Jesus.
"May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." 2 Peter 1:2
"My GRACE is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all there gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Cor. 12:9
Grace comes free because of who God is in us. I have learned that he loves me not because of anything I've ever done or deserve, but loves me because I am me, the Joanna he created me to be. The messed up lost kid, the athlete, the wife, the mom, the cancer survivor, and now the grace filled women of God. I will be this everyday, I will fail often and struggle through this life much, but grace will always meet me. "In the midst of our failed attempts at loving Jesus, His grace covers us"- Francis Chan. I've always been this evolving person, he's just used this part of my journey in the past year to allow me to see many thing more clear. How to fully accept and give grace. Try it, you will be blessed. See the goodness, accept the gifts, love God's people. Everyone is underserved, live to be more like Jesus. We will fail together often, but we can always get up and give again.
"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." 1 Peter 4:10
“Grace teaches us that God loves because of who God is, not because of who we are.”
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