The true face of grace……

Grace is wild. 

I didn’t understand what that statement meant when I first read it. I asked my friend
who had posted it and got some idea but only now am I beginning to understand what
it really means…….Grace is wild indeed!

As I sit here writing this post I realise I am where I am because of God’s grace. It is
because of God’s grace that I am here.

My life in its entirety is a testament of God’s grace!
Forget intelligence, wit, resourcefulness and so on…..

My life is a testimony of God’s grace and nothing else!

The reason I am alive is because of God’s grace

The reason I have hope and a destiny is soley because of His grace
Looking at my life it doesn’t make sense why I am here doing
the things I am doing. With the kind of past I had I should be
poor, lost, abandoned, without hope, purposeless and so much more….
but His grace brought me here…..

I may not have reached my destination but it’s because of His grace
I am even traveling!!!
Do we really understand how amazing His grace is..???

Because of His grace I am doing things in normal situations I am

not supposed to be doing. Some of those things are:

 

I teach kids every Sunday but when I started I stuttered badly!

God enables me every time I teach. I don’t stutter now! That is grace!

I love writing but I never pursued it at school. I have never went to

writing school.

 

I have lived in a country that has had one of the worst economies in

the world. The country came to a stand still, we ran out of food and

our dollar crashed and yet I am still here……!

 

Because of abuse I had NO self esteem, nothing whatsoever!

I avoided crowds and hated speaking in front of people. I hated

myself but here I am today knowing who I am and helping others

discover who they are in God. I don’t know about you but that

is grace! The person I am today is because of God’s grace!

 

God’s grace is not to be taken lightly. It’s His grace that carries us

everyday!

We have a chance at life and we have favor because of His grace!

We can face giants because His grace is on us.

We can walk through the valley because it’s His grace that leads us

out of it.

 

I have come to the conclusion that the enemy has no concept of grace.

He doesn’t understand it. If he did he would stop fighting. He would

stop trying to fight against God’s people because he would know his

efforts are useless because God’s grace is with us and protects us! He

may not understand but we do…..

If grace has got me this far what more my future?! I can look with confidence at my future because I know His grace is with me. Grace opens doors that I can’t open in my own strength.

Grace enables me to face giants

Grace gives me permission to ask the impossible.

When we are humble we begin to understand grace more fully!

Pride hides the true face of grace!

My desire and prayer is that you will begin to see more of God’s

grace in your life. His grace is truly amazing!
Amen

Rolain

This life we live as Christians…..

I was thinking about this life we live as Christians and the God

we serve.

It is a truly amazing journey we are on. Think with me on what it

means to serve the Lord God Almighty!

On this journey we are on:

God calls us to trust Him completely! Not when it makes sense or

when the conditions are right, no! In every situation He says, trust Me!

 

While he was still speaking to her, a messenger arrived from the home of Jairus, the leader of the synagogue. He told him, “Your daughter is dead. There’s no use troubling the Teacher now.” But when Jesus heard what had happened, he said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid. Just have faith, and she will be healed.” (‭Luke‬ ‭8‬:‭49-50‬ NLT)

 

We serve a God who calls us to jump out of boats to walk on water!

He does that so He can increase our faith! Peter had to learn a lesson

on faith that he could only learn by stepping out of the boat!

 

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink. “Save me, Lord!” he shouted. Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt me?” (‭Matthew‬ ‭14‬:‭28-31‬ NLT)

 

We serve a God who confronts us about the fears we have!

And suddenly, behold, there arose a violent storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered up by the waves; but He was sleeping. And they went and awakened Him, saying, Lord, rescue and preserve us! We are perishing! And He said to them, Why are you timid and afraid, O you of little faith? Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great and wonderful calm (a perfect peaceableness). (‭Matthew‬ ‭8‬:‭24-26‬ AMP)

Why did He confront them about their fears? He did it because He

wanted them to realise He was bigger than any fear they ever had.

And that’s the truth, God wants you to know He is bigger than any

and every fear you have and will ever have…..

 

We serve a God who has great and amazing plans for us even if it

seems impossible!

 

And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace (free, spontaneous, absolute favor and loving-kindness) with God. And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His forefather David, And He will reign over the house of Jacob throughout the ages; and of His reign there will be no end. [Isa. 9:6, 7; Dan. 2:44.] And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no [intimacy with any man as a] husband? (‭Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭30-34‬ AMP)

For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment. Then Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said. And the angel left her. (‭Luke‬ ‭1‬:‭37-38‬ AMP)

God’s plan for Mary was impossible in the natural but she still

believed God!

Like Mary we are to believe God no matter how outrageous it seems

in the natural. He has a great and amazing destiny for each of us!

We just need to trust Him!

We serve a God who calls the least qualified.

Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak (terebinth) at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, and his son Gideon was beating wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of [fearless] courage. (‭Judges‬ ‭6‬:‭11-12‬ AMP)

Gideon said to Him, Oh Lord, how can I deliver Israel? Behold, my clan is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house. The Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall smite the Midianites as one man. (‭Judges‬ ‭6‬:‭15-16‬ AMP)

 

Gideon didn’t see himself as much because his family was poor

but God saw someone He could use. Gideon may have been looked

down upon by his community because his family was poor but God

had a plan for him! God can and will use anyone! Gideon’s story

reminds me of one other hero who God used mightily.

But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” (‭Exodus‬ ‭3‬:‭13‬ NLT)

But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “ I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.” (‭Exodus‬ ‭3‬:‭13-14‬ NLT)

But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The LORD never appeared to you’?” (‭Exodus‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬ NLT)

But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” (‭Exodus‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬ NLT)

But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.” (‭Exodus‬ ‭4‬:‭13‬ NLT)
Let me say this, whoever you are, no matter what you have been

through, whateveryou think you are lacking know this, GOD HAS A

PLAN FOR YOU!

He will not rest until you are walking in the purpose He has for you!
This is the God we serve! He is so good!

As you can see, God does a lot of amazing things

for us….It’s not easy at times but the

reason He does all He does is because He is good and because He

loves us!

Rolain

Stuttering- The importance of Looking Forward

On my road to fluency I learnt a principle from my mentor which really helped me. He was a psychologist. He taught me, “we make a lot of decisions about our future, not based on what can be, but what has been. Most of the results you get will be based, not upon what can be, but what has been”.

I used to do that. How many times had I stuttered in front of a crowd? How many times had I stuttered when I was on the phone? How many times had I stuttered when I spoke to people one on one?
So you can imagine when opportunities came my way to speak to a crowd. I was freaking out. I was not seeing what could be. Instead, I could see the last time I spoke and how the people responded. I told myself I was not going through that again. For a season I turned down amazing opportunities that God was opening up to me because of something that happened months and even years ago.

It sounds crazy but that is what happens. In some cases a woman will turn down a man’s advances not because he is a cheat or because he is an abuser but because she was abused or cheated in the past by another man. So the man who likes her now can be genuine in his love for her and has her best interests in mind but she won’t be able to see it because of her past experiences.
Are you doing that in your life? Do you look at all the negative things you have been through and make decisions based on them? How many opportunities have you turned down? How many relationships have you turned down because of your past experiences?
We need to change how we see. We need to learn to look at the future when making decisions. We need to learn how to look at opportunities and see what can be instead of what has been. That is what I used to do. “I can’t speak to people now because I stuttered and people laughed at me last week” I would think to myself. And such other thoughts would run through my mind. But I changed the way I see. I started seeing what can be. I saw myself speaking fluently and boldly. I saw peeople responding to what I was saying. These are the kind of pictures I taught myself to see. And that is what you need to start doing. Let us look at two examples from the word. There are so many I could choose from but for now we will look at two examples.

His name was Moses. For his story you will need to read the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deutoronomy.
Moses had a lot going on for him. He was a prince of Egypt. But he killed someone and ran away. God then spoke to him in the desert. What an amazing experience he must of had, but in the presence of God he started giving excuses! Why? It was because he was looking at the negative things that had happened in the past and projected them into his future. God wanted to use him to save Israel. What an opportunity to do something amazing! But he didn’t know how to look forward positively. He could not see what could be. He couldn’t see his people’s freedom. Instead he saw his stuttering,
“And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not eloquent or a man of words, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and have a heavy and awkward tongue. Exodus 4:10

I am interested in where he got his view. Did people joke about his stutter? Did he try to speak to people and end up not being able to articulate what he wanted to say?
Whatever the reason it made him draw back in fear. Don’t draw back in fear. Look to what can be. See victory. See success. God wants to use you to do great things. But you need to know how to look forward.
Gideon was someone else who fell into the trap of looking at the negative that happened in the past. For years he had grown up being told his family was the least. For years he was told he was nothing. And when an angel of the Lord came to speak to him he reverted to the past. He never saw what could be. He was looking at what had been and could of missed the call of God on his life. But God was gracious towards him. His story is in the book of Judges chapter 6.

So this is the conclusion, learn to look at what can be. There is so much for you. Don’t draw back into fear. Don’t make decisions based on what has been. As you apply this principle you will see a change.

Rolain. P