Embracing Grace: This.

Two decades ago. That’s when I first heard God’s grace compared to the manna of the wilderness-wandering Israelites.¹ Daily. God-given. Enough. Yet, God’s people had to get out of their tents to gather it. By faith, they had to trust that what God provided would fill all their needs.

Since first hearing this comparison, I have been blessed with much teaching on God’s grace. While I originally understood that grace is the gift we’re given through Christ’s death and resurrection, that it’s the means of our salvation and entry into God’s kingdom, I’ve also learned it’s so much more – because grace is needed daily. Like manna. It’s something we must leave our shelters for and willingly receive from God every single day. 

Grace forgives and saves us; it also revives and grows us.
Grace feeds and sustains us; it sanctifies and helps us become more like our Savior.

I think somewhere along the way many of us who love Jesus have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that grace is more than a free pass into heaven (2 Timothy 1:9). It’s meant to be our daily help – sacred morsels that fuel our faith so that, like the Israelites, we can trust that God always provides and in ways that include the physical but also the mental, emotional, and spiritual.

We might nod our heads in agreement at that thought. However, the truth is, we constantly come against the saturation of the Western “I can do it” mentality as well as lifelong habits of striving to be self-sufficient. Embracing grace will be a journey of unlearning as much as gaining understanding, of breaking as much as healing.  

Embracing grace means living sourced by God’s grace – once and for all time. Grace requires our returning day-in-and-day-out to the fields of manna to glean, gather, and grow. It helps us trust in God’s enough-ness by believing that we’re yoked with Jesus, whose burden is light – that we’re anchored in truth, held by God, carried when we can’t walk, poured into when we’re empty, sustained when we’re depleted, encouraged when we’re lacking courage, bold with a holy confidence in our God – all the while trusting that Jesus will constantly be with us, meeting us where we are, giving us what we need. In faith. By grace. 

Grace for Consumerism

It occurs to me – just now – that at the core of all our scarcity mindsets and self-sufficient motivations is a heartbeat of consumerism. Even the analogy of going out to get our manna-breakfast everyday lends itself to such thinking. We’re hungry afterall. We need manna-grace. Feed us, Lord!

Yet it’s the consumeristic way of thinking and living that traps us, that keeps us squashed by the scarcity belief that there might not be enough. So we hoard, only to find that what we set aside for a rainy day has rotted and gotten all wormy. So we strive, trying to come up with clever ways to garner our own grace for the day. 

Tish Harrison Warren offers an alternative way to consider our role – not as consumer but as co-laborer with God.² Instead of seeing this daily routine as rousing ourselves long enough to grab our allotment of grace, consume it, and head back to our tents to worry about making it through our day, we make a shift. We begin to see manna-grace not only as a sustenance source but as an invitation to join God in what He’s already doing. We recognize that our call as children of God – as His salt and light in the world – is first and foremost our identity. And when we embrace this truth, grace becomes the superfood that gifts us the ability to work alongside God even as He is working inside of us. 

Grace for Today

JD Walt is known for challenging his listeners and readers with the mantra, “To win the day, we must first win the morning!”³ For those of us who are more night-owl than early-bird, JD isn’t offering an opinion on morning quiet time to shame or otherwise trap us in legalism. Rather, he states a truth that many in today’s Christian circles are echoing – we need God first. Every day. Oh wait, I think Jesus said something like that. Wink, wink (Matthew 6:33). 

The abiding life we seek depends on our dependence – not on self but on God. And it relies on daily rhythms that begin with reaching for Jesus before our phones, with looking to heaven before our to-do lists. It’s taking the time to give God and His grace the first influence on us before we step into the world – however that might look or work.

I’m certain that as we move through this series on embracing grace that this idea of daily rhythms will weave its way through our ponderings and practices. In fact, I’ve been realizing the impact of such repetitive rhythms in my own life.

For years and years I fell into cycles that resembled a heart beat chart – full of ‘ups’ that looked like steady Bible study, prayer, and journaling as well as ‘downs’ that reflected my busyness more than my faithfulness. As I became aware of these annual patterns, I’d beat myself up for being ‘not good enough’. I’d believe the lies that I was failing at my faith.

Then God began opening my eyes to grace – its work and its effects. He began showing me that in each season, be that the literal calendar seasons or the life-induced ones, His grace still carried me. He extended grace when my toddlers demanded all my attention. He offered grace when summers were packed with stinky preteen boys running through the house and yard. And He delighted with grace when I made the time to dig into His Word even as the baby sat in his highchair eating cereal bits next to me. 

In other words, God understands. He sees where we are, especially our overwhelm, and knows what we are able to do. He also knows how much we’re capable of – so sometimes He’ll nudge us out of complacency or victimhood, fear or lack of faith and toward Himself by way of His Word and Spirit. 

During a recent season, I found myself freer to spend more time with God than in any other season of my adult life. Yet I floundered. My thoughts stole the spotlight. My eyes sought out distractions. My heart beat for so many things besides God. And I realized with a shock that time was not the enemy. 

Such a revelation has helped me come to terms with the fact that I cannot do this faith journey on my own. I am recognizing and receiving an abundant grace that continues to help me – one bite of manna at a time – to settle into rhythms and routines that are surrendered and sanctified. And on those days that I look to Him first, I’m filled with the grace of God; my mind settles into focus and my heart aligns with God’s. 

Five years of sitting with God has been teaching me the way of meeting with Him. And it’s one of total grace. Grace that steadies and searches. Grace that supplants scarcity with a humble yet confident belief that God is always enough – that His grace for today is enough.

And the fruit of such dailiness showed itself not too long ago. When I hit an emotional wall, it didn’t take me long to abandon my fears for Jesus. In the midst of my questioning and worrying, I looked to God. I took all of it to Him with an honesty and trust that I’d only learned over the course of years of dailiness with God. My faith in Him didn’t automatically erase all my doubts and second-guessing, but it did keep me in front of Him. It kept me open to a move of His Spirit – so that one Sunday morning as I held my hymnal and struggled to sing for the lump in my throat, I suddenly felt the bold whisper of the Spirit say, “Embrace this.” 

And I knew. I knew that I knew that I knew – this was God saying I could trust Him even in this situation, even though I didn’t understand, even though I couldn’t see a way. I could embrace this because He is in it! Freedom flooded my whole being so that my tears flowed in relief rather than from fear.

Nothing about ‘this’ situation has changed. It’s still difficult to navigate. It remains challenging and hard to see a way through it. But because God told me to embrace this, I am better able to release the reins and walk by faith – even though I need renewed faith each and every day in order to keep embracing it. 

That’s the beauty of grace. It’s there in abundance. It’s present every day. It’s our gift with which to navigate the ups and the downs of life. And it’s always enough (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

May we each look to Jesus today, and each day to come, with an anticipation of what He has for us. 
May we move out from the shadows to receive all the grace He has for us.
May we trust that God’s grace is measured out for all we will need today, trusting that there will be more tomorrow. 
May we step into the world covered and filled by that grace as co-laborers with Christ. 
May we embrace whatever ‘this’ we find ourselves facing — because we’re embracing grace.

Father God, thank You for saving us through the life and death of your Son – by your grace. Thank You for calling us to a holy life so that by your grace we can be shaped and formed into the likeness of your Son – and to be co-laborers with You in the world. Give us hearts that seek You first each and every day so that our minds and hearts remain aligned with You. And may the dailiness of receiving your grace help us learn how much we can rely on You, how much we can trust that your grace is always enough. Lord Jesus, we long to learn more about the grace You’ve given us. Help us to read your Word in such a way that we see all the ways our God is a grace-giver. Help us to sense your Spirit’s nudges and whispers so that we can lay down any false beliefs, fears, or selfish tendencies – and fully embrace You and your grace. Holy Spirit, how we need You as we take hold of the spiritual life that requires such repetitive rhythms, such daily doses of grace. We pray that You would sustain us, support us, and show us how to give Jesus our first looks every morning, to give Him our hearts and homes, our health and hopes. Show us how to leave our tents every single day to gather the grace God has given us and to trust that His grace is always enough. In Jesus’ name, amen.
(inspired by 2 Timothy 1:9; Matthew 6:33; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Liturgy of the Ordinary²)

Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.

• 1 – Beth Moore’s comparison of grace to manna is seen in her Bible study, A Woman’s Heart God’s Dwelling Place.^
• 2 – There are so many teachings about the dailiness of our faith walk in Liturgy of the Ordinary^ by Tish Harrison Warren. Specifically in this post I used ideas from pp.28,35.
• 3 – JD Walt on The Wake Up Call, a daily writing and podcast that immerses its readers and listeners in the Word and Spirit. I cannot recommend it enough. It’s been one of my daily rhythms for years. In recent years, it’s been JD’s teachings about the dailiness of coming to Jesus that has helped me recognize my need of grace every single day. AND, just this week, JD has begun an 89-day series on the Gospels. It’s never too late to join in. You can find The Wake Up Call podcast on Spotify. You can also find the writings/audios on Seedbed.com. In fact, I recommend signing up to get The Wake Up Call in your inbox every morning – you can read or listen from there everyday. I’d love to hear if you’re taking part in the daily Wake Up Call!! XOXO
• We have a new playlist: Embracing Grace!! It’s more of a collection than a curation, but the theme of grace weaves all the way through it. And I am confident I’ll continue to work on its content and flow as we go. Of course, I had to get Chris Tomlin’s song, “Your Grace Is Enough,” near the top of this list as it captures so much of what we want to remember and embrace as move through these next few months: God’s grace is always enough!!
• Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
• Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d rather listen to (than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
• My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.

Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. There’s nowhere better to know Christ than in His Word, so throughout this series, we’ll grab hold of one passage each week and embrace the rhythm of starting our day with God and His Word every morning.

• This week our passage is 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. It includes the broader context of our key verse (v.9) so that we see an example of how Paul lived dependent on God’s grace in the midst of suffering and challenge. May verse nine be our truth to wake up to each and every morning this week so that the eyes of our hearts remain fixed on our Grace Giver!
  
  “My grace is enough; it’s all you need.” –2 Corinthians 12:9 MSG
• We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!

Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Arjun Kapoor on Unsplash.
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