The Beauty of God's Grace

These are the lyrics to Mercy Me's song "Beautiful":


The days will come when you don't have the strength
When all you hear is you're not worth anything
Wondering if you could ever be loved
And if they truly saw your heart they'd see too much

You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You're beautiful
And praying that you have the heart to find
Cause you are more than what is hurting you tonight
For all the lies you've held inside so long
And they are nothing in the shadow of the cross
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are made so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You're beautiful

Before you ever took a breath
Long before the world began
Of all the wonders He possessed
There was one more precious
Of all the earth and skys above
You're the one He madly loves
Enough to death
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
In His eyes
You're beautiful
You were meant for so much more than all of this

You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You're meant for so much more than all of this
You're beautiful
You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His

This song reminds us of how much God loves us for who we are and thinks we are beautiful no matter what. We are beautiful because Christ has shed his blood for us and we are new creations. Made in Christ's image, we are beautiful in God's eyes. 1 Samuel 16:7 says " Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then, Song of Soloman 4:7 says "You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." This is how God sees all of us! We don't deserve it at all, but He sees us as flawless because of His grace and because of Jesus! When Jesus died on the cross, He bridged the gap between us and God.
One of my favorite songs called "O, how he loves us" says " if grace is an ocean, we're all sinking." I don't think there is a better way to describe the immensity of God's grace. It also says "We are His portion and He is our prize, drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes." My question to you is, do our lives show that He is our prize? Do we prize Him, praising Him and giving glory to Him through everything that we do? I know that I don't do this consistently. I'm selfish; you are selfish; we are all selfish. It's a fact. And it's why we need the grace of God! But, we cannot constantly give excuses and continue to sin the same sins and ignore it. That's not showing other people that we prize God above all. I encourage you to think about that. It's something that has been on my mind lately. I want my life to show that I know and understand the depth of the grace I have been given, and that I want God to always be my utmost prize. I know it is a struggle because it is a radical change to do this daily, but we can surely strive to do so.

Rejoicing in all circumstances

"Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be joyful in God my Savior. The sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to tread on the heights." Habakkuk 3:18-19

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say it, rejoice!" Philippians 4:4

What is my reason for rejoicing today? Well, there are many, but right now I feel like rejoicing because I know who my Lord and Savior. It's really been on my mind since church this morning. Today we read from Matthew 1, and the phrase the pastor kept repeating was "He is with us." That is what I have had to constantly remind myself of and place my hope in over the past month or so. Emmanuel: God is with us. He never leaves or forsakes us, and He is with us wherever we go. He is our hope in time of need, and He is our rock and our shelter, our fortress and our shield.

About two years ago, I decided that I wanted to have a relationship with God. I realized that I had made God a part of my life, but my life was not centered around God. It's easy to do this in high school and when you first get to college because there are so many distractions, temptations, and worldly things that, at the time, matter a lot more than they should. I had some Christian influences in my life, but no one had been keeping me accountable, and I never wanted to be very involved with church activities. I remember being busy with sports and school, and being a perfectionist about school especially. My excuse for not going to youth group was either school or the fact that I hadn't been going consistently and everyone else had, and they had made their friends already. It's so sad that I thought that way. I was completely missing out on God because I cared so much about what other people thought about me, and I also lived to please other people. I think I wanted to please other people to make me feel better about myself, and maybe because I thought it would get them to like me more. Sounds a little immature, right? Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but until the end of my senior year, this is what my life looked like.

At the end of senior year, I started to grow up a little bit, and read my Bible every now and then. It started with my college decision: I wanted to go to God for that because I couldn't decide on my own. So I started praying a little more than normal, and for some reason I landed on Samford. God already had that in His plan for me, and He wanted to do big things with it. I had absolutely no clue about this, and I couldn't care less at the time. I thought I was a good person; I was fairly satisfied with my life, and when I came to God with a problem, it usually got solved eventually.

After some serious self-examining and searching, as well as being surrounded by a few friends who were living for God and growing, I finally figured out where I wanted to find my identity, and that was in Christ. A lot happened in between, but I'm making a long story short. This is a VERY short version of my testimony. Haha. Basically, God did a LOT of work in my heart during my first semester at Samford, which I am SO thankful for today. God really is so good.

I just wanted to share a little with yall today because I am feeling so thankful that, for the past few years, I have felt God's presence with me and not ignored it! Of course there have been some times when I have, but overall, He has been there and I have been letting Him work in me and I hope through me a little as well. God has ALWAYS been by my side, I just didn't acknowledge it much for most of my life. I went to Him only when I needed Him for something, not because I desired to know Him better and because I loved Him with all of my heart.

We all struggle in our relationships with God, but we are all imperfect, and that is a part of walking with Him. When I thought I was a good person, I was 100% wrong. I am a sinner, and I am dirty, but Christ cleanses me and makes me into a new creation, and I am only worthy because of His grace and mercy. We can rejoice in the fact that we are not good people, but we have a Savior who loves us with all of His heart and who is with us ALWAYS!! My heart hurts for those who do not know Christ. It is impossible to fully express what He has done in my life, but He changes you, and it is amazing! I can rejoice because He has a plan for my life, and He forgives me every day. We can rejoice in the good times and in the bad because God is sovereign and God is good.