Time to Boast

I just need to boast on here today the biblical way. I've been studying, "LORD, I Need Grace To Make it Today" by Kay Arthur and I am learning so much about appropriating grace by faith. I'm re-memorizing 2 Corinthians 12: 9 & 10. Of course, verses 7 through 10 are all wonderful to put perspective on this kind of boasting. I'll put it here just so you don't have to look it up if you don't know what I'm referring to:

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (New Living Translation)
7 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.
8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. 10 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I BOAST about my weakness. Being a selfish, struggling mother is my weakness that is used to show God's power. I used to think that the "thorn" was my weakness, but my weakness is truly found in my response to the thorn. God places things or circumstances in our lives that we may beg of Him to remove. By not removing it, a platform is in place to show God's power!!!! Wow! Listen to some out of her book:

I long for the grace of God to be so engraved on our minds and hearts that we will be freed from a lifetime of attitudes, misconceptions, and independence which keep us from appropriating His grace in all its sufficiency.
Deliverance from the power of sin comes as you cease your striving in the flesh and cast yourself in dependence upon Him. When you are dependent upon Him, you will find His grace is always sufficient.
Defeated Christians have little power and are not effective because they fail to appropriate God's grace. Grace is power.

I have been in such a funk lately full of unhappiness. During this time I have stayed in the Word and keeping my heart prostrate out of humility mostly but also in pleading with the Lord for His help. I don't want to remain in this "defeated Christian" place. Thank you, Lord for your GRACE that helps me make it today!

GRACE

I definitely learned the definition of grace this morning. I knew it before, but experiencing it like I did gave me a new understanding of God's grace. It was 9:28 as I finally backed out of our driveway. I think we had already been in the car for five minutes while Kenna tried her hardest to buckle up all by herself. Patience already worn thin, I realized how late we were to get Meg to Mother's Day Out by 9:30. Still, I sped on the first street out of our neighborhood. I looked up and saw the black and white presence that instantly made my heart thump!
After getting pulled over and handing him the goods.....I sat in the car waiting to find out the verdict. I deserved a ticket. I sped. I deserved to pay the fine because I did wrong. It wasn't neccesarily an intentional wrong. I didn't set out to break the law. My circumstances of being late overshadowed the importance of following laws. So, as I had enough time to process that no matter what, when the officer came back I was either going to have a ticket to pay or a warning. I realized that it is what it is. To sit and worry wouldn't change anything.

When he came delivering the warning, I agreed with him that I needed a warning because what I did was wrong. I drove away recognizing that getting a warning when really you deserve to pay a fine is nothing but grace.
God's grace gives to us freely eternal life when we deserve eternal punishment. I am humbled!!!