God's Pleasure

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 

~Ephesians 1:5

What brings pleasure to God?  When I decided to stop living my life for me and called out to God to take over, that brought God pleasure.  But how many times have I forgotten, in the course of my daily life, to realize that something I have done brings a smile to The Lord?

That is where having a "relationship" with my Father in Heaven comes into play.  Sure, I read the bible every day, attend a great church with fantastic people, but am I making time to develop the relationship between me and God?  When I find myself sitting down with no distractions, no baseball on TV, no kids asking anything of me, do I reach out to God and have a conversation with Him?  When I have nothing to ask of Him, just simply to talk, do I call on my Father?  These are the things that can cement a relationship.  These are the things that I think gives God pleasure.  

Dearest Father in Heaven, please forgive me for not taking the time throughout my day to build on our relationship.  I thank you ever so much for wanting to have that relationship with me, but it will only deepen if I want to put in the work.  And I do!!  I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen!!!

Radical

Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory. 

~Romans 5:2 (The Voice)

Grace is amazing.  Grace is unmerited.  Grace is about any positive adjective you can think of.  But grace is...radical?  I liked the scripture above, but decided I would look up the definition of radical to really understand it.  And to my surprise, it had nothing to do with surfing or skateboarding!  That is a joke.  A very un-radical joke...

The definition of radical as an adjective is: "Relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough."  Wow!  Grace IS radical.  Can you imagine anything more far-reaching or thorough than eternity?  Because we get eternity when we accept God's free gift of Grace!  

Dear Father, please help me to be aware at all times of how radical Your Grace is.  It is nothing I deserve or am rewarded for.  It is given out of love.  I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen!

God's Masterpiece

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.  

~Ephesians 2:10 

"God's masterpiece."  Wow!  The more I ponder that saying, the more I praise God for including me in that saying.  I should walk into a coffee house or even the dry cleaners (if I owned clothes that would benefit from dry cleaning) and shout "I am God's masterpiece!"  

But that would be boasting, even if I am blown away by the awesomeness of that phrase!  To think, with all I've done wrong, that I could still be his masterpiece.  What I should proclaim is that "I am God's masterpiece...and you can be too.  And here's the way you can..."

God, thank you for accepting me warts and all.  Thank you for making your Grace free to me.  All I had to do was ask.  God, please help me to let other people know about how great it is to be one your masterpieces!  I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen!!