A Magnolia's Heart Beats

Thoughts in Prayer Time

I came home from work earlier this afternoon with a headache. I headed to bed to try to sleep it off and as I prayed before falling asleep (I never did go to sleep) I kept coming back to this thought..."What a privelege to pray to God and know He hears me. Who am I that He would do this for me? I did nothing to deserve it my salvation and access to Him in prayer - it's all a gift of unmerited favor - grace."

Trying to wrap your head around grace and having access to the Most High God in prayer will humble you.

I really thought about it this afternoon. Really.

Paul reminds us in Romans 3:10, "There is no one righteous, not even one." We're told by Paul in Ephesians 2:8, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—".

What is this grace? It's unmerited favor, given by God to us through His Son Jesus' death on the cross for our sins! For *my* sins. He didn't have to do this. Going back to the Bible, Paul says in Romans 5:7, "Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die." So, I'm not righteous on my own, I already know that. Not even good. Yeah, I try to be, but really. I was born with the virus of sin in my body just like every other person on earth except for Jesus.

The key to understanding grace is this:

Romans 5:8: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Why?

Oh, friend. You know the verse. We all memorized it in Sunday School and got our gold stars for it, right? (Well, I did. Momma made sure we were in church. She sang of His love to me before my memories begin, and because of her, I never remember "not knowing Jesus." It was later that I came to know Him through salvation, yes, but that's a story for another time.) Back to the verse...John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

How humbling is that? How *humbling* is that? He loved us enough to send His Son as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins!

Trying to wrap my mind around God's grace, that precious precious gift is just drives my heart to feel like it's going to explode with love and amazement. Why me? Because He loved me. Why not someone more righteous than I? Because no one is righteous. Not one. Can't earn my way into God's favor, it's only by grace.

It floods my heart with indescribable joy to realize that it is because God first loved me that He made a provision for me to spend forever with Him and have access to Him in prayer.

Praising my Savior never seemed so easy.