Faith, Fear, and God’s Grace.

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I believe God’s grace is truly a beautiful thing. God’s grace is something we should walk in and also make sure that we don’t allow God’s grace to keep us in a place where there is no growth. It is something that should never be taken for granted and can only be fully realized through a humble heart. Even thought God’s grace is always available to us, a prideful heart can hardly recognize, nor can pride accept that it does in fact need grace in its life.

His grace is all around us, yet we can be blinded by pride to not even realize it. Sometimes our fear takes us away from His grace. Through our pride and fear we turn our back on His grace.

Faith is what allows us to walk in His grace.

Recently our family has had to face some very difficult situations.

Worst fears…we had to face it.

Moments we wish were a bad dream and never happened…it happened.

From outright hostility from people around us, to a traumatic event that was a true tragedy in every sense of the word, and events that can only be described as a freak accident, we’ve had to literally overcome a lot over the past two years.

I really don’t even care to say the word overcome because even thought we survived sometimes the pain of the trauma arises out of the blue, or we are reminded of the setbacks that arose from the unmerited hostility that was directed towards our family resulting in unnecessary obstacles and stress that truly could have been avoided.  Sometimes it feels like we haven’t overcome a single thing because the scars of those events will be with us for the rest of our lives.

But I will say the greatest lesson I have learned through it all is to pray, and that I truly have nothing to fear except the almighty God that is the ruler of this world, and even my tiny little life.

So often we fear death, tragedy, trauma, hostility – I could literally find something to fear every single moment of my life.  And even in those moments where I think I am “safe” I find that even in those moments God is the one Who is in control.

These events have literally redirected my fearful thoughts back to trusting God and walking in His grace.

When we take a step back and realize that our fear makes us more vulnerable to traps of the enemy, we then realize that the only way to find safety is through trusting God and walking in His grace.

This is the message I think Jesus was trying to teach us through everything that He did during His ministry.  

Why are we so afraid?  Why do we lack faith?  Why do we think worrying will actually protect us or keep us alive one minute longer?

It doesn’t. 

I didn’t see the suffering our family has had to endure coming at me. I was completely blindsided and not even my wildest-fearful-worries prepared me for what had happened. Just like they can’t prepare me for might happen in the future, good or bad.

There is so much freedom in trusting God instead of finding security in trying to dodge every horrible situation that might come our way.

You see if we are going to have a heart that accepts His grace, and learn to walk in it, then we need to have faith, and let go of our fear.

It was faith that allowed Peter to walk on water, and it was fear that brought him down. It wasn’t by Peter’s ability that he was able to walk on water, but through God’s grace. Peter stopped focusing on God’s grace when he began to fear.

When we walk in fear we are not walking in His grace, and we have stopped trusting God, instead we are trusting in our own ability to control every area of our life.  Peter stopped trusting Jesus who was standing on the water right in front of his face!  

If we choose our desires and place them before God then we are taking advantage of His grace.  Our fears are controlled by what we want to hold onto, and what we want to control.

God’s grace is a beautiful thing, and it’s all around us. What are you going to do with His grace? Walk in it, turn your back on it, or take it for granted?

 

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