Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.

2 Peter 1:2
Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about how good life is. My family is healthy, my church is healthy, I’m serving in a way that makes me feel like I’m making a difference, my own health is pretty good, and the Chargers just had another pretty good draft in the NFL. All in all, life is good right now.

Also, I think a lot about not messing things up. Not because I intend to mess things up, but sometimes it just happens. It’s amazing how fast a life that is on track can get off track isn’t it?

We’re coming up on Father’s day, and this time of year I always reflect on my Dad’s life. I doubt he meant it to come out the way he did. He didn’t start out his life thinking he wanted to end up in prison, or sick, or pass away too soon. It was the little decisions in his life he made that had long term consequences… smoking, running on the wrong side of the law, lack of anger management skills… all of these things contributed to a life that ended too soon with a lot left unsaid and undone.

I’ve found in my own life I have the same propensity for making wrong personal decisions that have long term consequences. Why is this so? You would think that I would have learned from my father, and other men, that thoughts lead to emotions, emotions lead to actions, actions lead to habits, habits lead to character, and character leads to reputation.

Recently I was participating in a Bible study with a number of other pastors. It’s an accountability group lead by a leader in our denomination. The point of the group is to hold each other accountable, and to encourage each other. We hold our meetings by video chat, and while it makes it hard to connect as well as in person, it’s still a great time of sharing and praying together.

At our last time together the leader summed up our discussion on God’s grace with the following statement. “His grace, His ability to send His grace before us, to sustain us, to save us, and prevent us from falling, is a reflection of His character. If you believe in that God has the innate character of love, then believing in His grace to keep us safe in this world is a lot easier.”

I believe that God loves me.

I believe that God wants me to grow in faith.

I believe that God wants to use me for His purposes.

I believe His Grace is enough…