The Morning Page - Grasping Grace

Good morning! Here in the Midwest, it is a damp and dreary start to the day. However, I did notice driving in to work spring green buds giving a lacy look to all the tree branches.

The town square's flowering trees are budding out daily. So, there's that.

On my mind today is some of the dreaming I did last night.

Most dreams are a garble of the days events and thoughts threaded together in an impossible collage of happenings. But once in awhile, something stands out. If I can remember it clearly hours later, I take notice.

In my dream, I was wandering down hallways of what looked like to be a centuries-old building. I met a chap coming down a staircase who informed me there was a really nice work-out room on the next floor.

Why inform me? I'm certainly never one to avail myself of a work-out room!

However, I AM a curious sort, so I went upstairs to see what they had. Immediately upon entering the room, I spied my nemesis, a series of monkey bars mounted high in a narrow hallway.

Monkey bars and I have a history together. My first broken arm occurred on one. I've avoided them ever since.

Somehow, today, I knew things would be different. I went over to them and LEAPED up and grabbed hold of one of the bars. (This would only happen in a dream). 

At first, I went from bar to bar easily. I felt empowered! However, as time went on, it became more difficult to hang on.

The chap from the hallway wandered into the room and asked how things were going.

I replied that at first it was easy, but now it was difficult to keep from slipping.

He remarked it was a lot like grace. Grace empowers and makes one able to do wonders. But the enemy tries his best to make us loosen our hold on grace. He'd yank it out of our hands if he could.

Then he said, "It's worth everything to hold onto grace."

I remember waking several times throughout the night and telling myself, "I've got to hold onto grace."

Now, I'm wide awake and mulling the dream over. Grace is a gift I didn't earn. God is not going to yank it back from me. A gift is a gift.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8 NKJV)

Here is the temptation: to begin to believe it's not enough, to feel that I must do more to earn favor with God. If I just did more, my prayers would be answered. Then I've stepped in the realm of thinking it's all about me, instead of it's all about Him.

Once I've grasped grace, I need to live in the reality of it. Don't let anyone, even myself, talk me out of the wondrous fact of God's love and care. Undeserved, but it is there.

It's worth everything to hold onto grace.

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And that is what is on my mind this morning. What's on yours?

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I'm sharing with Crystal's #FreshMarketFriday and Arabah Joy's Grace & Truth. It's worth your time to visit these great communities!