God’s Grace is Greater than Our Failures

I don’t understand how it is that time passes by more rapidly each year, but I bet some of you reading this post will testify along with me that, indeed, it does! 2012 has come and gone. Already, we find ourselves at the beginning of a new year.

For me, as 2012 drew to a close, I reminisced of a work I believed God had called me to, that I have yet to fulfill. I thought about all the mistakes I had made over the years since I had received that assignment; and all the wrong turns I have taken. Yes, these regrets turned into a pity party. I believed I had ruined it for myself. I have sometimes acted like someone with asperger syndrome (maybe I actually have that), not picking up on social cues and lacking inborn social skills, such as being able to read body language or speaking tones. Several years ago, in my naiveness concerning the politics found in the Christian life, and not knowing when to be quiet and when to speak up, I felt I had most likely messed up the plan of God for my life. After all, God opens opportunities through people. Then God brought to my mind, as He has done so often when I begin to lack faith, that whatever we have messed up in the past He uses for good in our lives and the lives of others around us (Romans 8:28). And, I thought about the ways I was aware that He had clearly done that. For example, He has made some major changes in the way I think. He has made some character tweaks here and there as well. And, my social skills are improving daily. He reminded me that regardless of our failures, as His children, His gifts and calling are unchanged. He reminded me that every day is filled with grace, power, and new beginnings because that is the kind of God and Father He is!

After I left the pity party, refocusing on God instead of self, I began to set some goals for 2013 while reminding myself that my life belongs to God; therefore, I must hold them loosely in wide-opened hands. Should God want to change any of my plans; should He allow something unexpected to mess up my plan; or, should He allow me to stray away from my plan, I should remember He will use it for good because I am His, He loves me and I love Him (Romans 8:28). I don’t know if any of you have brought your regrets with you into the New Year, but if so, I want to encourage you to do what I did. Give them up! Remember, it isn’t about your mistakes; it is about who God is and that you are His!

Should you fail or fall any time in 2013, remember you don’t have to wait until January 1, 2014 to start over again. Every day is a new day filled with God’s grace for you. Every day you have the opportunity for new life because God is a God of new beginnings. He is a God who redeems the time and restores what is lost. Even when we have sinned or failed God desperately, it is not too late for us. God is always ready to restore us to Himself. His desire, ability, and will to bless us is always present. Every day we have the opportunity to start anew with a totally clean slate.

The Apostle Peter had made some hefty mistakes as had the Apostle Paul. Jesus did not forsake them, but loved them, and moved through them to change the world.  Each day of this year, whether it is a day we have done it all right or done it all wrong, by the grace of God, let’s keep moving forward. Let’s say and do as the Apostle Paul did: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

In 2013, let’s live like God’s grace is stronger than all our faults and failures! Let’s live like His love is deeper than our hearts can fathom! Can we live like that? Yes, I believe we can! And when we do, together we could change the world!

I hope you will have time to listen to and enjoy the song by clicking on the link at the end of this post. This is my prayer for us all for 2013!

Prayers for a grace-filled 2013 – May it be your happiest yet with an ever increasing sense of God’s presence!

Song: http://blogwithsarah.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/08-we-could-change-the-world.mp3

With Sister Love,
Sarah Goebel

POP: A Journey in the Light by Sarah Goebel

I do hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and I pray the heart of Thanksgiving continues with us all each day throughout the year ahead.

I want to share a book with you that we recently published through our small publishing company (www.onassignmentpublishing.com). It is a real-time personal testimony of God’s miraculous power, and presence and a case study on the power of prayer. The author, Dick Bowley, examples to us how to live with an attitude of Thanksgiving even in the midst of our worst life challenges.

While there are many books on the market testifying of the power of prayer and God’s faithfulness, most were written after the battle was a memory and the victory was in hand. Not so with this one. Dick Bowley shares in POP: A Journey in the Light thoughts and daily activities written in his journal while in the midst of adversity, trusting God for His answer and fighting for his life.  Whether facing a life-threatening situation or other challenge that appears in the natural to have you beat, or looking for a book that will impart spiritual knowledge and inspiration, this book is for you. You will be encouraged and strengthened like never before as you read this real-time, amazing true story of God’s sustaining power and faithfulness found in prayer while in the darkness of adversity.

I highly recommend this book for every Christian who desires to grow in their faith. It is also a great read for those in the health profession as it gives a day-to-day insight into one faith-filled patient’s perspective during his battle for life. This book can be purchased on Amazon.com and will soon be available at his author website, http://www.popthebook.com.

The Truth About Prayer Habits by Sarah Goebel

Whatever exercises we practice in the Christian life, they are in vain if done without the reading of Scripture and prayer. Yet sadly, most Christians go through life without an active prayer life. They worship, they go on mission trips, they serve in the church but many seldom pray. Donald Whitney in his book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, tells about a survey done in the 1980s. “More than seventeen thousand members of a major evangelical denomination were surveyed about their prayer habits while attending seminars on prayer for spiritual awakening. Because they attended this kind of seminar, we can assume these people are above average in their interest in prayer. And yet, the surveys revealed that they pray an average of less than five minutes each day. There were two thousand pastors and wives at these same seminars. By their own admission, they pray less than seven minutes a day.”

On the other hand, can we really pray continually as we commanded in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Yes, we can do this because Scripture is not speaking here of prayer as an activity. This is important for us to understand.  “Pray continually” speaks of relationship. My friend, Jennifer K. Dean in her book, Heart’s Cry, explains that God is calling us to live a praying life versus a prayer life.  She calls this lifestyle “living behind the veil in the presence of God throughout our days, living in Christ and Christ living through us. Prayer is in this sense living in an unbroken awareness of the presence of God as we move through our day.” It means you may be concentrating on another activity at the moment, but at the same time, you are aware of God’s presence and the need to return your attention to Him. In other words, you never really stop talking with God; you just have interruptions in your conversation. Praying continually is chatting off and on all day long as we take care of our responsibilities and enjoy the activities we are involved in as though God is our companion, traveling right along with us. The thing is – He is. We simply fail to acknowledge it.

Living a praying life does not mean, however, that we never set aside a particular time for devoted prayer. We are told in Colossians 4:2, we are to devote ourselves to prayer. When we devote ourselves to something, we make it a priority. God wants us to live with a continual awareness of His presence, communing and communicating with Him while doing life as well as to have focused dedicated times of prayer. His expectation for us to pray flows from His love for us, not from a heart to put us to task. To illustrate, when I travel, my husband expects me to call him when I arrive at my destination. I expect the same from him. We don’t put this expectation on one another as a means of control or distrust. The one traveling communicates to put the other’s mind at ease by informing them they are safe. Besides, Praise the Lord, we are still after all these years eager to hear one another’s voice when we are separated by distance. My point here is just as our expectation to phone one another flows from our love, God’s expectation for us to pray is also born out of love. When we set aside special time alone with God where our attention is all on Him, we are in a place of intimacy where God can reveal to us His most intimate secrets.

So how is your prayer life? Does it seem lifeless or alive? Do you receive direct answers to your prayers? Are you experiencing the reality of God’s continual presence in your life?

To develop a praying life lifestyle combined with special times of dedicated prayer starts with a decision to do so. God will help you once you commit to it. I would also highly recommend you read Heart’s Cry: Principles of Prayer and Live a Praying Life, both by Jennifer Kennedy Dean. Regardless where you currently are in your walk with God, I truly believe these books will set you on course for a deepened intimacy with God and a more powerful, answered prayer life.

            

To end this post, I want to share one exercise I have found helpful to developing a praying life relationship with our Father. Spend 5 to 10 minutes in prayer each morning upon awakening before your thoughts become clouded with the day’s plans. Thank Him for your life and day and ask Him to be Lord over it. Focus your thoughts on Him and His love, sovereignty and majesty. This should help you to remember He is with you from the time your feet hit the floor and as you go through your busy day.

How about you? I know we have many readers who walk closely with God. Do you have an exercise you could share that has helped you to live a praying life or increased your intimacy with God?