Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Mercy and Grace

I'm remembering way back to my own AWANA days on this one. I had to memorize the difference in Mercy and Grace. We as Christians often use them interchangeably, but I do think it's an important part of salvation and life to distinguish them.
Here are a few rough definitions from what I remember from AWANA:

~Mercy is God NOT giving us what we DO deserve. ie. destruction, sickness, death, disease, an eternity in hell seperated from Him.

~Grace is God giving us what we DON'T deserve. ie. joys, blessings, love, happiness, a home, job, family, friends, earthly pleasures, but best of all, an eternity with Him on a new Earth that is perfect.

Today, I need both of these in great abundance. I need His mercy to not let Levi get any sicker. When he coughs and turns pale I envision losing him. It's been such a long road and I need God's mercy to get through a winter of this.
I need Grace to enjoy the little things in my day. Such as Levi finally sleeping for more than 15 minutes. A husband who rocked him back to sleep at 5:45am when I couldn't bear to get up one more time.

Ugh, and now I need mercy and grace to deal with the fact that as soon as I type this, he's awake again. I love my son, I'm so thankful for his every breath. But I'm thankful for the grace and mercy of God that allow me to love him no matter what.

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