Cookies or Coffee? I'll Choose Grace Over Everything!

Today was my big day set aside to bake holiday treats for friends and family. I was up early, had some God time, worked out and began the beloved act of all day baking. My husband was so impressed as I shared that today I would be baking and posting my second blog while the cookies baked. He laughed and said, "oh so cookies today rather than coffee." WHAT!?!?! Is this man insane? Never would there be a day without coffee. It may be cookies with coffee but never cookies over coffee.

Those who know me know and understand my love and passion for this marvelous dark caramel colored hot drink. It fills my soul with a goodness I cannot express with letters and words on a page. As I sit each day to write in my favorite coffee places, or have a hot cup brewed at home, I am filled with a joy that starts from the inside and runs through to the look on my face. Pure joy!

I think you can see why it is so easy for me to relate my love of coffee with my love of God. Pure joy! Pure joy that He has given me on a daily basis for as long as I can remember. God pours out his grace on me continually. Like pouring a strong, hot coffee in my cup. This is a grace He desires for you to know and have as well. He desires for you to experience this joy. This is a gift that keeps us warm, delivers energy, and peace that He will give over and over. This is His grace that he wants to freely give to us if we just have faith and believe. It is a cup full of a gift that quiets our soul in difficult times, brings us hope during struggles and hardships, supplies us with friends, resources, and gifts, when we least expect it, but need it the most.

Hot coffee warms my insides after that first sip and it's just like that when I feel God’s amazing grace as he watches over me and pours into me. This grace means He is on our side and desires good for us, not evil. He does not desire to throw down law at us and expect us to do everything right, to never fail, be disappointed, or to be wrong. Therefore, when these things happen, when we fail, have been disappointed, do wrong and are wronged, God is there, lifting us up. His grace looks like bringing people into our lives at unexpected times. This is when the friend we really need sends a text letting us know she is thinking about us, at exactly the right time. This is when you open your Bible and Jesus’ glorious words written in red, say the exact thing you need to hear. When you open your mailbox and there is a refund check for the exact amount of the power bill you are overdue in paying. This is when your tears are falling and you feel a warm peace come over you letting you know that things will be alright. You feel the quiet of the morning as the snow falls silently outside your window and know that your child will be safe on his drive home from college. When you should have lost your job because of a mistake you made, but your boss agrees to let you fix the mistake instead. When your husband holds you after the doctor has confirmed the cancer diagnosis and you are not afraid and know the outcome will be positive. This is God's grace and it's free for you an me.

Do you have this joy? This peace? Is this what you feel on a daily basis? Or, do you wonder how this can be? Why would God choose you? How might this even be manifested in your life? If these are questions you are asking, let me tell you a little bit about what God thinks about you and why He would want to give this grace to you so freely.

John 1:12 tells us that you ARE God’s. When you believe in Him, you are wholly his, and born of him. Now my dad was a great dad, but to think that God is my father and chooses me is incredible. And the fact that he chose me before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and he did this to the praise of his glorious grace, lets me know that there is absolutely nothing that will keep him from seeking me and calling out my name.

There is nothing you can do or not do that would turn Him away from you. At all times God walks with you. (Leviticus 26:12) He covers you with His favors. (Psalm 5:12) He fights for you. (Deuteronomy 1:30) He created you in His image. (Genesis 1:27). He takes pleasure in you. (Psalm 149:4) He chooses you. (John 15:16) He accepts you. (Psalm 27:10) He loves you. (1 John 4:10).

Don't you want this? When I wake up each morning the first thing I want is coffee. But every day, all day, the only thing I desire are these things written above, which are taken right from God's word, the authority over everything. I want this more than anything because this is what gives my life joy and peace. A peace that surpasses all understanding. Wow! What an amazing God that would love us so much that he would pour out this love and grace to us continually. God's grace is free every day for you and me. He loves us that much to be there for us whatever the day might bring with his steaming hot cup of GRACE.

If you want this as well, ask Him for it. Right now, quietly in your mind (He hears you), or out loud to the mirror or into the nothingness of your backyard. Ask Him for this free grace and be prepared to be blessed.