LEARNING ABOUT MY GRACIOUS GOD

"So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” 

(Luke 15:20, NASB).  

I remember a number of years ago, when I went through a dark period in my walk with Christ, I fell into deep depression and rebellion. It was a period I would rather not recount. However, even when we are at our worse, the Lord is always at His best. Anyway, I had left the local Church I was a part of for awhile. During this dark time, I frequented some of the bars with some friends. During this period, God had shown glimpses of Himself to me. Reminders that He had not forgotten me and that I was still his child. I had once again drunk from the putrid waters of pleasure from a world I was redeemed from. I fed off the husks of the world, and experienced the emptiness and dissatisfaction, when my Father had the fatted calf, the signet ring, and robe in waiting.  Here I was, a child of the King wallowing in the pigpen of the world. Yet, the moment came, when I came to my senses. One night while returning home, I turned aside from the sidewalk I was on, and found a quiet dark corner in between a building. There I met with my heavenly Father, wept, and repented of my sin and rebellion. I had expected God to really come down on me hard with the discipline of His judgment, instead, I was met with the discipline of His Grace!  Like the father who lovingly welcomed back his rebellious son, so the Lord welcomed me back. I cannot change the past, but I sure can change the present with the Lord’s help, which in turn will change my future for the better for God’s glory! So what was the Lord teaching me through all this? He was purging me of the unbeliever’s version of God. A god created from the clay of the unbeliever’s vain imaginings and misconceptions of who God really is. Wherein I thought to be met with an angry and vengeful God for the wrong I did, I was met instead by a gracious and loving Father. Now that’s grace! Amazing GRACE!

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

-John Newton.

Beloved Lord, indeed, your grace astounds me! Yes, how slow we are to grasp the truth that You are not a tyrant ready to beat us over the head the moment we slip up and get out of line. You are much gracious than that! Even though we deserve Your judgment, You instead entreat us with Your kind grace. What an awesome God we serve! Amen!