May 11, 2011
“… I paid a huge price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.” Isaiah 43:3-4 The Message
Why would God do all of this for you …?
If you could read your name in God’s LifeBook it would have descriptions such as: Son loved .. Son claimed .. Son alive .. Restored mess .. Sheer generosity .. Once a sinner .. Now a saint. Your life is different today because of Jesus. It may not feel like it .. but it is. It may feel like it and you intimately know it is because of Jesus. The Same Life that was sold-off and traded for you is the Same Life that takes up residence in you and He isn’t moving out. It’s His life that is restoring you at this moment. It’s His life that fills you with the sheer generosity of God’s love. It’s His life that has exchanged your grave life for a grace life. Jesus makes you different and that difference is contagious .. infectious .. and indefatigably gracious. That’s how much you mean to me! You may see the lingering mess and the incomplete parts of your life .. but God sees your life restored by His Son. Why would God do all of this for you? Because He chose you. Why? Because He did. Why? So you would learn to laugh in this fallen world and see the endless possibilities of God’s sheer generosity breaking out in lives all around you. Are you going to make room for God today? It only takes a moment …
“Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.” Romans 3:23-24 The Message
Ken Chester: Grace-Gripped is sent M-F to God’s Generously Loved Saints following Jesus and friends of Priority One (ken@priorityone.org)
