INSIDE OUT

     My kids do their laundry every day.  Everyday they need help.  Well the younger two do and really their only almost 5 and 3.  One of them gets frustrated every day when the clothes are inside out.  He melts down says he can't do it and even goes as far as saying I am a bad folder.  Yes you guest it I am talking about my Bear child.  God uses Bear in my life often to paint me pictures of myself.  He is at times a dramatic example of the whirlwind going on in my heart.
     The Lord recently showed me that I get the gospel inside out.  To be clear the gospel is that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit had a plan.  Before creation they knew that Jesus would need to come, die and raise from the dead to win the right to forgive us of our sin.  He purchased the keys to sin and death and will use them to set us free if we believe it.  This is something I KNOW.  I grew up in the church, I went to bible school and have been a student of the scriptures my whole adult life.  Yet I have still got the most wonderful freeing truth there is on earth or in heaven inside out.

God's word says in 2 Cor. 9:8

And God is able to make ALL grace abound toward you, that you, ALways having ALL sufficiently in ALL things, may have and abundance for every good work. 
   
     When I get to a scripture like this that is packed with more that I am able to unravel in my simple mind I have to go to the original language.

ALL: Every whole
GRACE: the divine influence on a heart and its reflection in the life
SUFFICIENT: Contentedness, competence

     I  wrote on this same scripture last week and the word focus for me was SUFFICIENT.  But this week its GRACE.   Here is how I get the gospel inside out.  God is saying that He gives us everything we need in abundance and the natural flow of that would be to obey Him in the good works He has lined up for us.  What I have done is looked at that grace and said, "Wow that sure would be nice. I will do all these good works to get some of that."  That is like you giving your kid a Christmas present and they save up all the next year to pay you back for it!  YUCK!
     When I have things inside out or backwards then my motivating force isn't grace but fear of failure.  Believe me you can get a lot done and almost look like you have your poop in a group with fear of failure driving you on.  The down side is that it is exhausting and lacking in real fellowship and intimacy with God.  Christ died to set us free from sin.  There can be no fear of failure were grace has taken up residency.
     So I have spent the last 2 weeks freaking out about the fact that I am back at square one.  Which would not be a good example of walking in the rest of grace.  Sometimes I really like to share when I'm not on the other side yet.  I have done some pretty serious business with the Lord on this issue and am looking forward to all that He is going to teach me about it.  I am even more excited about what receiving and walking in grace will do for my kids.  I am praying that the lack of grace I have been unable to pass on to my kids will be redeemed and that God would use me as a main source of grace in my kids lives.
     I mentioned that I struggled with the grace concept for 2 weeks and then I realized some were in the last 2 weeks I stopped drinking coffee.  OK, Jess what does that have to do with anything.  Well, I'll tell you.  I have desired to stop drinking coffee for some time.  I have stopped and started over and over.  I'm not a coffee hater by I have some skin issue that coffee is the one thing I shouldn't be drinking.  I felt powerless to stop and strived to do it.  I have asked God to help me but never rested in His grace to do it.  In the midst of all this grace turmoil God gave me something tangible to show me that He will do it.  He will make all grace to abound toward me that I will always have all sufficiency in all things that I may have an abundance for every good work.  God will do this for me because He loves me. Just like I started flipping Bear's clothes right side out before I gave them to him. Because I love him.

Our Bear 

     Are you resting in grace. Do you know there isn't a thing you can do to pay God back and all He wants is your heart? I would encourage you do business right now if there is any to do. Love you reader. Thanks for taking the time to go on this journey with me.
                                                                                                   ~Jess