Redeemed. Forgiven. Embraced with Grace.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace.

Ephesians 1:7 | VOTD

It’s funny that whenever I come to the Lord and ask for forgiveness or asking for His grace to accept me again, He gives me assurance that I am heard. I don’t think God is the God of coincidences, I think He knows us too well to communicate with us in a way we’ll understand.

Short background: I haven’t been in my best spiritual shape lately. This morning I came to the Lord to let Him know that I’m scared because I messed up and I don’t know what to do. All I know was that I don’t want my heart to be hardened and I want to come home. I pour to God what was going through my mind and my heart. Towards the end of my prayer, I told Him about His promise that whenever we decide to draw near to Him, He will draw closer. That we can come in full confidence because He will embrace us with all that we are – blemished, stained, guilty – because He is the God of grace and forgiveness. After I closed my prayer and read through the verse of the day for reflection, He gave me Ephesians 1:7.

This verse gives me hope. The hope that my God will accept me because He is gracious. The Lord will redeem me and forgive me. My Father will save me because I cannot save myself. I cannot do things on my own. No one else can save me from my sins other the Lord who can transform me inside out. I am redeemed by His blood. I am forgiven. Grace has been extended to me. I can come home. I can be free from fear of being rejected or shamed. In the presence of my God, I will be kept. I will be embraced with all of who I am.

Reflections on Hebrews 4:16

Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need. | Hebrews 4:16 NASB

Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help. | Hebrews 4:14-16 MSG

Our God is the God of love and forgiveness. We can believe that He will accept us when we come in and ask for His help and forgiveness. Our God is the God of transformation. We can have faith that He will not leave us the same as He has founded us, He will train us into the kind of person He wanted us to be. For us to receive forgiveness and training, we must approach the throne of grace with confidence. We must know that our God is the God of Mercy, He gives us a new day every day to get better from who we were the day before. It’s not an accident that a day ends in darkness and it begins again with a ray of light. But even in that darkness, the Lord has given us the moon and the stars so we can see the light when we look up. We can start again. We can start anew. Let’s hold on and choose to draw near to the giver of Hope. He will always accepts us when we come home. He is our Home.

Glasshouse

lately
i had been
very entitled
and sensitive
as to how
i want people
to listen to my stories

i am starting
to build on
the mentality
of what i deserve
or what should
people give me
based on
all the things
i had given them

i wanted my actions
to get reciprocated
so badly
that in any moment
i felt ignored
or was not given
the right attention
i had in mind
i get really upset
and distant

and as i continue
holding on
to these expectations
i am constantly
planting resentment
against people
i truly care for

with this
i knew
the glasshouse
that is my heart
is slowly rotting

when we only care
too much
about ourselves
when we only see
what pains us
when we only crave
for getting
what we deserve
based on what
we gave out —
that’s when we
start to deterioarate

how do we
overcome this

we acknowledge
our emotions
and feel them
we play out
all these
irrational thoughts
inside our heads
and face them

it is never
an easy feat
it takes courage
to get out of the rot
than willingly
be drowned in it

as for our
never ending
expectations of people
W.H. Auden once said l
you shall love
your crooked neighbor
with your crooked heart

in the final analysis
we are all bound
to hurt one another
whether intentionally
or otherwise

having
the valiant ability
to forgive
is a character
given to those
who are eager
to receive the same

#DailyDevo: 2 Chronicles 33

When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. | 2 Chronicles 33:12-13

After Hezekiah, his son Manasseh became the king of Judah. Unlike his father who walked uprightly before the Lord, Manasseh committed to doing evil in the sight of the Lord. He rebuilt high places which his father had broken down; erected altars to worship false gods; worshipped idols inside God’s temple; sacrificed his sons to these false gods; practiced sorcery, witchcraft, divination; his reign led his people astray. 2 Chronicles 33:1-9

But then one day, when Manasseh became a captive in Babylon, he humbled his heart before the Lord and repented. The Lord kept His promise and restores Mannaseh to the throne. From then on, Manasseh turned 180-degree from his wicked ways and made a tremendous effort to rebuilt and restore what he previously destroyed.

When his son, Amon, succeeded him from the throne, he did the same wicked ways as his father and multiplied it. But unlike Manasseh, Amon did not humble himself. He did not change from his wicked ways. Thus, the people conspired to kill him and made his son, Josiah, king in his place.

REFLECTION: When have you struggled like Manasseh? Perhaps letting negative influences creep in, leading others astray or ignoring God’s call? How did you return to the Lord, or how can you take steps to make it right today?

As humans, we are very flawed and although we try to do the things of the Lord, at some point we still forget and go on our own way.

I am in so many ways like Manasseh. I knew what is wrong in the sight of the Lord.  I knew that disobedience is costly. I knew that the Lord only wanted what’s good for me to direct me to the path where He could use me and bring other people with me to Him. I knew that God’s love is sovereign and that when we repent from our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us from our sins. I knew that God’s ability to forgive shouldn’t make it easy for me to commit and enjoy doing what is not right. 

Even when I knew these things in my mind, I still do what is wrong and disobey Christ directly. Sometimes, I’m making God’s love as an excuse that I’ll be forgiven after committing the sin and asking for forgiveness. I abuse God’s privilege as His daughter every time I see fit. Yet, when the time comes that my heart cannot take any more of the guilt, the fear, and the shame — and I once again, humble my heart before the Lord, He gives me another chance. He never fails.

For You have loved me, though I have failed you, over and over.

Bread of Life, Citipointe Live

Then I try to go back to the path where He wants to take me. Not relying on my own strength or will to do it right this time but on His power that He can unchain me from the bondage that I tied myself around so tightly. I pray that I will continue to focus on Him because every single time that I get distracted and look around me, I always end up messing up again. I am not perfect and I know I am going to willfully commit something that I told the Lord I wont’ do again, but I pray that I would be getting up and doing better. Depending on Him every step of the way. After all, there’s nothing I can do apart from Christ.

Devo Background via First5: But Wait, There’s More!