Rivers of Grace

𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲!  Oh my!  For years I remember my parents telling me about the “Pearce pride.”  A pride that was passed down through British history, from generation to generation and one that, in our family, we could be proud of.  Too proud to ever ask for help, too proud to ever speak of emotions, too proud to ever admit that we may be in pain.  Why on earth would you be proud of that?  My ride with pride began so incredibly young, perhaps a survival response, but a resolve to never cry, to not let people in, and to be tough.  And I was.  At least on the outside! 

Leaving home at seventeen with a determination to be independent, self-sufficient, and unconstrained.  To not let anyone in.  My head held so high, pride in my every step, I didn’t see all the potholes, and oh I stumbled so many times!  So many bad decisions.  What’s that scripture?  “𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍.” (Prov 16:18)  And fall I did, simply because I had to do it my way instead of God’s way.

God’s grace is so incredibly amazing, song after song has been written about it, we all know that we need it, desperately.  But God’s word tells us that He gives more grace to the humble than to the proud.  “𝑶𝒓 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒗𝒂𝒊𝒏, “𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒖𝒔 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒔 𝒋𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚”? 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝑯𝒆 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒔: “𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒅, 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒆.”  (James 4:5-6) He gives more grace!  My heart longs for rivers of grace to swim in, waterfalls of grace that splash over my head, soaking me in rich, glorious, amazing grace.  Did you see how the Spirit is yearning for us jealously?  He yearns for you!  But how do we get there – how do we become those humble, gentle, content women that the Spirit yearns for?

The absolute truth is this is incredibly easy, our Beloved makes things simple for us and I love that.  I need simple!  1 Peter 5:6-7 says; “𝑯𝒖𝒎𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒗𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑮𝒐𝒅’𝒔 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅, 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒖𝒑 𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒖𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆.  𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒙𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖.”  If we will take the time to give Him all our anxiety, all our cares, all our worries He will pour out His grace over us in abundance.  We will become like the Shulamite who Lets Him in, has a yielded heart longing for the yearning of her Lover.  Those cares spoken about in this verse are ‘𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘯𝘢’ in the Greek also meaning ‘𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥.’  When we don’t cast our anxiety upon our Savior we are drawn in every different direction, drawn away from our LORD.  Distracted and unfocused.  Not lifting our face in anticipation of letting the one that we love kiss us.  Lift us up.  Take care of us.  Keep us safe.  Let’s simply come before our Beloved, humble ourselves, and give Him every worry, every concern that churns in our guts drawing us away from Him.  Let’s ‘Let Him’ take those burdens, those anguished thoughts and instead give us more grace.  What a glorious exchange!  What a fantastic deal!

Today I’m going to take those first two words from our Shulamite and ‘Let Him,’ I’m going to yield to His strong, graceful hands and Let Him into every area of my life.  I’m going to say 𝗬𝗘𝗦 to intimacy and 𝗡𝗢 to pride, shame, and fear!  Will you come with me?  I so hope you will!