It's a Surprise!

# 7

2 Corinthians 2: 9-10 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Grace, it's always a surprise. It comes when I'm not expecting it, if I thought I deserved it then it wouldn’t really be grace anymore. Its so much more then mercy, it takes mercy and builds on it. Mercy is the starting point, Grace is where the action is, where the party is, it's where His love lives.

Tonight I thought of a moment in my life about 3 years ago. I was off being a complete ass for lack of a better term. For those of you who don’t know, I had an affair on my wife and in that time left home to live with another woman. One night Lorilee (my wife) and I had an intense evening, I was trying to leave her and she didn’t want me to go. A few hours of fighting and talking she decided to just let me go. This was showing me mercy, she could of kept hounding me, because she had the right, but she let me go free. But that was just the starting point. Lorilee went to go inside, as I was packed to go, but then she stopped at the door, came back and said to me. “You look like you need a hug”. - WOW GRACE!! WOW WHAT A HUG!!

I needed a hug badly!! Yes I was hurting Lorilee, more then I knew, but also in that moment I was weak and hurting too. God saw that weakness and used Lorilee to love me. That hug, that act of grace, stuck with me the whole time I was apart from her. Gods love lived in that moment, He lived in that act of grace, and it started to change me. Praise God for His Grace.

Tonight as I write, I write with a heavy heart. Yesterday Lorilee and I found out that she had a miscarriage and the baby we had been expecting is gone. I have to admit, I am hurting right now. But in this moment, in this time of hurt and emotion I feel Gods arms around me.

God has already shown me mercy, he gave me the right to live a free life, to do what I want, to go where I want, to be who I want to be, but for some reason Gods eyes are always on me. And now in this moment God has stopped, noticed, and has come alongside me to bring comfort, hope and peace. He sees that I need a hug tonight and he is drawing near to me: “Kevin, you look like you need a hug”. His love is being lived out in his grace – His kindness and comfort for me. What did I do to deserve it? - absolutely nothing.

What a pleasant surprise His Grace is tonight! - Praise God!

“Thank you Lord that your grace is sufficient for me, Thank you that when I am weak, that then I am strong because of you. Lord Forgive me for forgetting that you are always watching over me and that you care for me. Help me to praise you in all circumstances. Thank you for your unending Love and Grace.”

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%2012&version=NIV