Grace

Grace 

How many times a day, a week, a month, do you ask God for help? I feel like I ask God for a lot. Some things are big, and some are small. Some things I ask for would require a miracle and others are just a simple request. Since becoming a stay at home mom, I have found that talking to God through out the day about silly daily tasks helps me feel less like a crazy lady talking to herself and is far better than the blank stares I get when talking to my toddler. In a one hour time period on a typical day at home with my son I might ask God for things like: more toilet paper to magically appear AND that my toddler would leave the bathroom to let me pee in peace, for the doorbell to not wake up my napping child, for the pediatrician to have an available appointment, and for my husband to read my mind and come home from work with a bottle of chardonnay and a veggie pizza….all for me. Just today, I had an instance where I begged for God’s divine intervention in the grocery store. My toddler figured out how to get unbuckled out of the fire truck shopping cart and was standing up on the seat trying to climb out. After numerous failed attempts to have him sit ‘on his bottom’ in the fire truck I told him he would have to sit up in the cart with me. This turned into to the biggest public meltdown I have experienced in my mothering career and resulted in people staying clear of the dog food isle for about 15 minutes in fear of being attacked by a 20 month old. Clearly, my prayer of “God, help me get out of here without a meltdown” was not answered. Sometimes our prayers are answered and sometimes they are not.

The other day I prayed that my friend’s lost dog would be found and sure enough 3 days later he was found. My husband and I asked God for over 4 years to lead us to a Church and finally during year 5 after trying over 10 churches we found one that we are in love with. At 7 months pregnant with our first child my husband and I prayed that God would turn our small little savings into enough to buy a home to raise our little boy in…and God blessed us with just that. My family and I asked God to heal my Grandad from his illnesses and keep him on earth for at least a few more years, and yet so quickly he left us and went to heaven. Recently, I begged God to heal my young friend’s body which was filled with cancer, and yet he too went to be with God. Sometimes our prayers are answered and sometimes they are not. Why? I do not know.

God knows. He knows our every need even before we do (Matthew 6:8). As long as we seek Him first in our lives he will provide for us, he just might not always provide like we think we want him too. We want God to take away any and all discomfort in our lives but what we need to remember is that in our greatest weaknesses come our greatest strengths. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12 Paul writes about his thorn, about how it caused him a great deal of distress, discomfort, and pain. Paul writes that he asked God to remove this thorn 3 times but God refused. Paul then goes on to explain why God chose not to remove his thorn; so that he could receive things far greater like humility, a stronger character, an ability to empathize with others and not to mention greater Grace ( 2 Corinthians: 7,8)! Jesus says to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. “For Christ sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12: 10). We may never understand why sometimes God chooses not to remove our thorn, but we must trust that God knows why and that His Grace is enough. 

God, help us to remember as we go throughout our day to day lives that no matter what request we bring to You, whether it be a silly one or a big one, that Your unfailing love and Grace is all we need. We praise You in our times of uncertainty and remember that You will not give us anything that we will not be able to handle. As we feel weighed down by the pain, frustrations, and hurts that our weaknesses bring, help us also to find the strengths that You give us which far outweigh our weaknesses. We ask you to fill us with your power so that our Strength will always come from You. Thank you, God, for your Love and Grace.  Amen.