Each morning I follow a year-long alphabetical list of God’s attributes which I call God words. Recently, starting the new year’s list, I enjoyed studying the “abundant life” and its impact from God’s “amazing grace.”
One of the articles I found online regarding grace described it as a power. I’d not identified it that way but could see how that applied. Without God’s amazing grace, we could not live an abundant life.
When I look at my life, I see the presence of grace at every turn. God gave me grace prior to birth by causing my mother’s stand in opposition to the suggestion of abortion due to relationship issues with my father. At birth, I arrived two months early and was saved by use of an incubator and God’s grace.
As I went through early childhood, with the scandal of divorce in my small conservative mid-western town, my grandparents graciously provided a home for my mother and me. More grace was shown when a stepdad came into my life who kindly adopted and cared for me as his own daughter. My childhood became more normal with the advent of two little brothers and a regular family life with gracious love and care. I was taken to church and had an opportunity to learn about God, although I was not too impressed then.
School was a challenge at times, but I made it through. College brought on experimentation and rebellion from my family values, but my Heavenly Father did not give up on me.
Later, as a mom of a preschooler, God graciously gave me another chance. My neighbor, a charismatic Catholic, invited me to attend a Bible study with her. My attitude was less than enthusiastic until she mentioned free babysitting, which made my acceptance a definite yes. As I focused on the unusual attitude of the pastor toward the inerrancy of the Bible, I fell in love with the Word of God. It wasn’t until several years later that God’s grace brought me to a retreat with a theme of “Come Away with me my Beloved,” based on the Song of Solomon that I recognized the need for a personal relationship with Jesus and committed to one.
So, as they say, the rest is history. I now have an abundant life full of God’s amazing grace. It is not full of riches, fame, or status, but nevertheless, is full of His amazing grace which empowers me to use whatever gifts He’s given me to serve Him and go where His Spirit leads me. His grace is truly amazing.
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