The end of demolition.

For the past two years and three months, God has been tearing down the temple walls that house the idols in my life. Now the walls have been torn down, and lately he has been going straight for the actual idols and destroying them altogether. Let me tell you, it hurts to have those things that I love and worship torn away from me. But thanks be to God that through His grace He is destroying them for me. It probably wouldn't hurt so bad to have them stripped away if I weren't grasping them so tightly, but where I  am weak, God is strong. Where I have failed, God's grace is abounding all the more! I am glad that it has been this painful so that God's grace might shine through, rather than if I would have had an easy battle and not received as much of God's grace, because If I did not have such a tight grip on those idols, the measure of God's mercy and grace would be less.

I know that it's too soon to say, but I think that this morning was the end of demolition--well, at least in one area of my life. I am finding it hard to articulate my experience with grace, and I don't want to make light of it, so I am just going to give a little nugget of goodness for you to chew on for today.  

When Jesus rose from the dead, he rose to show that God's wrath was satisfied in the sacrifice of his perfect and holy Son. When I sin, and I beat myself up about it and feel guilty, I am insulting God, saying that His grace is not enough. The blood that Jesus shed is enough! With that knowledge, I can enjoy the grace that Jesus died to give me! God has graciously saved me from his wrath! Before I believed, he poured his mercy out on me until the day that his grace captured me and saved me eternally! Hallelujah!! Amen.