"Grace upon Grace

Every year BFA has a theme that is prayerfully chosen by the chaplain and his team.  This year the theme has been Only Grace. Grace – it is a word that I have known and heard my whole life.  My name actually means graceful or full of grace.  And yet the older I get the more I realize that I have a long way to go in understanding and more importantly living in His grace.  Webster describes grace as “unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.”  I have personally come to know this grace through saving knowledge of Jesus.  But how do I live day by day, moment by moment in His grace? How do I let that grace continually flow from me to others? These are questions that I have been pondering this year.    

As 2012 began I found myself pleading with Jesus for more of His grace in my life.  I want to choose to live from the fullness of His grace.  The verse He led me to was John 1:16 – “And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.”  From the fullness of the triune God Himself I can be filled and draw from His grace.  And the good news is that His grace never runs dry.  He gives grace for saying goodbye to my family one more time, grace for the future, grace for the present, grace to receive hard news, grace to celebrate someone else’s victories and joys, grace for the injustices of life, grace for writing one more lesson plan, grace to be insignificant, etc.  Grace for each moment of each day.  What a gift!  One I only have to choose to receive, choose to live and choose to give.

My prayer for this year is that I would live up to my name, Anna, one filled with grace, God’s grace.  But more importantly that I would live up to my calling as a daughter of the King and live a life not out of my own strength or for my own glory but from His fullness and grace and for His glory!