Captured by Grace

Listening now to the song "Rescue" by Newsong. (I've posted that song in this blog before...use the blog's search engine if you want to hear the song again.)...The song makes me sad--or rather opens to the air, the sadness that is there already, under the surface...like a hotspring boiling under the surface of the ground, just ready to spurt upward.  The song lances that thin layer covering that pain and allows it to pour out.  "I need you Jesus, come to my rescue! Where else can I go?"  The song ends the chorus with the words, "Capture me with Grace" and indeed--aren't we?  Isn't it the Grace of God that attracts and entrances us?  It is for me.  It's his Grace that meets our raw, naked NEED.

Maybe for some people it is his strength--they feel that they can run to him and he has the power to change things; protect, or to benefit people....so it is to him they run.  But if you go to God for his strength; then you risk becoming the object of his strength....Like maybe he will squash you like a bug....

If you go to him because he is Love; then you incur a debt....when someone loves you, there is an expectation that you will respond in some particular way in return.

But if you go to him and depend on his Grace; then you can bet he will act on your behalf in ways that will dazzle you---and it will come freely.  You owe him nothing but to BE there.  He will  fix it; He will fix you.  And you do not have to do anything but to allow Him to change you.  And the consequence of this can only be Joy.  So, where's the catch?  What do we owe?  What do we need to do in return?

Just to stay in his Grace.  The moment we try to lift a finger to add to what God is doing on our behalf; then we nullify his Grace....We add to it effort---and suddenly it is no longer Grace.  So the "work" of it is simply to keep from working; to bathe in the Joy and Delight of it; to laugh aloud with the emboldening audacity of Grace.  Of course --Grace on God's side emerges out of  his strength AND his love on our behalf; and of course, when given the miracle of Grace we will respond in trust and love....but Grace is the keynote; the ballast for the sail.  For God so LOVED he GAVE.  The giving of God emerges from the heart of love God holds for us his wayward children.  That giving is "Grace upon Grace...."

Yeah. "I'm captured by your Grace."---It's the only thing I can trust; it's the only thing I can afford.  It's Grace to the Rescue.