On a much needed vacation. Enjoy this amazing post by Daveda Schmidlin.
Forever
It's funny how life can take us spiraling in different directions. When I look back on my life I see a lot of places, a lot of pain and a lot of joy. I see a lot of bad decision as well as a lot of good ones. I see my life before I knew the Lord and I see my life after, yet one thing has always remained the same. God has always known me. He has always called me by my name and accepted me just as I am.
I believe I accepted Jesus into my heart as a little girl, four or five years old , maybe younger. I didn't truly come to know Him until I was in my early twenties though. I made a lot of bad choices in my life, I lived the consequences of my sin, yet God never took His hand off of me....
and when I was ready to hear Him, when I had come to the end of myself, He called my name and I responded to Him, this time, looking back only to see how His grace covered me.
It is true that sometimes people accept Jesus and then turn around and live a life that is not glorifying. Are they really saved? Do they really know Him? Only God knows the true condition of their hearts, so who can really be the judge of that?
What I do know is that once we are His, once He has given us a new Spirit, once we are grafted into Christ, He never lets go of us. No amount of bad choices, no amount of lies we believe, no amount of destructive behavior can change His eternal commitment to us, and that's what really matters.
God doesn't work in time as we do. He works through the eyes of eternity and once He calls us His own, we are His, forever.
"It is through Him that we have received grace (God’s unmerited favor) and [our] apostleship to promote obedience to the faith and make disciples for His name’s sake among all the nations,6And this includes you, called of Jesus Christ and invited [as you are] to belong to Him." Romans 1:5-6
For more from Daveda check out her podcast.
/http://gracetalkwithdaveda.com/empowered-lord-psst-happens-stop-trying/
