Grace, Grace... God's Grace

Have you ever just looked back thinking about your life and what God has done... and catch your breath in total wonder of His goodness? Have you ever been so awe struck at His grace that you can hardly breathe? Have you ever been so full with the treasure of His mercy that you can't even utter a sound and all that's left to do is worship Him with tears of joy?

Aren't those the most precious moments? I don't believe that anything else could ever evoke such a response. "Nothing compares to the greatness of knowing You, Lord..." is what a song says by Third Day. But I think that it's not just the knowing Him that is incomparable. It's the experiencing Him and having His unsurpassable and matchless mercy, grace, love, and glory poured out upon you so freely and so completely, all being so undeserved and uncontainable, magnificent and terrifying, perfect and unspeakable, all sufficient yet ever causing you to yearn for more that is the thing to which nothing can compare. I sing of it so very often in my songs. It's mentioned in almost every one. Why? Because it is so great and so powerful that it can never be spoken about enough... and I am so overcome by it that I just collapse in the beauty of it all.

Though I speak and sing of it so often, grace is not so easily understood by me. It's so uncommon to our human flesh that even one drop of it can make me fall down to my knees crying out "why?" while my spirit softly utters a song of thankfulness. I recently finished a song titled "You Consume Me" about being in the presence of God, dancing before Him and being so taken by Him and His glory and His grace and majesty that all I can do is humbly bow before Him and allow Him to consume me completely. One line says, "I don't deserve Your love, yet you say I'm Your own." I feel those words just about every day of my life. I don't deserve Him or His love one bit. I have never done anything to even deserve a second glance from Him. I've never said anything that merited His pouring out of grace upon my life. And yet He pours... oh, how He pours! He also never stops. This, I think, is the hardest part for me to comprehend. When I am faithful to Him (as much as one can be here in the flesh on this earth) He pours. When I am not faithful to Him, He pours. When I bawl like a baby because I want Him to stop so I can cease this writhing in the guilt of my forsaking Him... He pours. It's unfathomable. Unstopable. Uncomprehensible. It's grace.

Hallelujah! Grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah! All my stains are washed away, washed away.

Todd Agnew

Grace, grace... God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace... God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,
Freely bestowed on all who believe!
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?

Julia H. Johnston,
Daniel B. Towner

I'm trying my best to receive with nothing but sheer thankfulness... but it is so hard to see past my undeserving self. How about you? How do you react at the wondrous grace of our Lord?