The Gould Family

I have always been overwhelmed with God’s grace. I lived my teen and early twenties for myself. I gave no thought to God and His wonderful gift that He gave me. Even though I grew up in a home where my mom was faithful in taking my sisters and me to church. I deserved shame, dispair, heartache and pain in my own mind for all the things I had done. I looked around me and saw many others who lived a “better” life (We are all sinners.) than I get the short end of the stick. When the Lord finally got a hold of my heart I would spend so much time wondering why I had been blessed. It was because I did not understand God’s grace in my own life. Grace is undeserved favor or merit. I did not deserve God’s forgiveness let alone His peace, joy and love. I did not deserve to have a husband who loved me and blessed with 5 wonderful boys. There were many in my life who had no loving husband or no children but they lived a Christian life. When I realized and accepted that it was because of God’s grace that I was saved and loved by Him then I was amazed.

Ephesians 1:7-8 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. I love this verse! God lavished grace on us! Wow! When I think of the word lavished I think of riches, wealth and jewels being poured out on someone. God’s grace is like a gift of riches waiting for us to take it and accept it.

1 Timothy 1:14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. His grace was more than abundant in Jesus Christ. No matter what we have done or what we haven’t done God’s grace is there waiting for us to reach out and grab it.

I have been reading a little book called Every Day Light by Selwyn Hughes and I would like to share with you a quote from his book. “The throne of God, you see is not a throne of righteousness but a throne of grace! Righteousness says: ‘Stay back until you are good enough to approach.’ Grace says: ‘I will put on you robes of righteousness that are provided for you by Christ - now you are good enough.’”

Beloved, we are robed in righteousness because of God’s grace that He has lavished on us. Amen!

…why is it so hard to do? We have countless stories in the Bible of how God did what he promised he would do. But in our daily lives we are not able to practically apply those truths to our circumstance. I am just beginning the study by Beth Moore, Believing God, and it will be a journey that will change my life. As I ponder the things I have learned I realize (again) that our image of God is not always accurate. We have these preconceived ideas about God maybe from church, family or friends but they are not true. God is bigger and better than anything we could imagine. He created us and everything around us out of nothing. He holds it all together and he is in control even if it doesn’t appear to be so. He has a plan and he wants us to be part of it. He wants us to step out in faith and trust him because he knows what is best. We can trust him because he has proven himself to be trustworthy through his word and if we are completely honest with ourselves through our own lives as well.

I Believe God!