LFB Ladies SS #8

(you will have to excuse the jumbled mess of chapters out of order :)

October 23, 2011

Chapter 5: What in the World, in All this World, is Grace? Pgs 79-91

Pg. 84 “ Daily discipline is the door to full freedom, and the discipline to count to one thousand gave way to the freedom of wonder and I can’t imagine not staying awake to God in the moment, the joy in the now.

But awakening to joy awakens to pain. Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don’t numb themselves to really living…life is loss.”

As she continues with the paragraphs she recognizes that everyday you step into more loss. We anticipate who or what we will lose that day. How do we count these losses and speak of God’s grace? Do we write these down as blessings also?

Pg. 85 “What is good, what counts as grace? What is the heart of God?”

It’s easy to count our blessings and write in our gratitude journals when life is seeming somewhat easy. But how do we utter God’s grace and goodness when the days are difficult? Is everything by God’s grace? Or are there some things that happen from evil?

Pg 88 “All God makes is good. Can it be that, that which seems to oppose the will of God actually is used of Him to accomplish the will of God? That which seems evil only seems so because of perspective, the way the eyes see the shadows. Above the clouds, light never stops shining.”

In God’s “master plan,” all works out for the good for those who love Him…so all the junk we walk through and the loss we experience can actually, from God’s perspective, be known as His grace for us. If our perspective shifts, can we allow God’s grace to consume us instead of questioning, deep anger or other negative emotions?

Pg. 89“Perspective-how we see.”

Pg. 89 “And I can hear Him soothe soft, ‘Are your ways My ways, child? Can you eat My manna, sustain on My mystery? Can you believe that I tenderly, tirelessly work all for the best good of the whole world-because My flame of love for you can never, ever be quenched?’”

Assignment# 8

Change your perspective. I understand that we will never fully understand why God allows certain things to happen. But, this week, our assignment and challenge is to shift our perspective from human and earthly to that of possibly how God would see it. There are reasons for everything, and allow yourself to experience your real feelings and emotions, but then try to shift your perspective to outside yourself. The hard situation is a shadow while above the clouds it is always shining.