I recently read an article posted on Facebook about “hyper-grace”. If you know that term then you know it’s a bad word. There are preachers out there who preach on the completeness and fullness of grace (nothing more to do, as Jesus did it all)… And there are those that refute that teaching with messages on having a balance of grace and law. The latter calls those grace teachings “hyper-grace”. I have read and heard plenty of these types of articles before. But this one named names. It was a very long article about one of my favorite preachers. It spoke of this preacher in a very negative light. Even going so far as to recommend (although out of sarcasm) book burnings. Instantly my defenses shot up. It was all I could do to post a *polite* response, which basically said that the author of that article didn’t know his hiney from a hole in the ground. So I started digging in again getting all fueled up for yet another good debate. But this time it didn’t feel fun. It felt exhausting. I thought to myself “Is this what it means to fight the good fight… or to run my race?”.
I got up from my computer to go get myself ready for the day. As I was cleaning up, I asked God for His wisdom in all this. I do that frequently… I ask for His wisdom. (Whether I listen or not is a whole different story  ) God spoke. But it wasn’t the message I thought I’d hear. He asked me a question. He said “Who are you defending… Me or you?”. I realized that, while my heart was to defend the beautiful, perfect grace of Jesus Christ, my head was more concerned with being right. Now, for the record… I’m on the path I’m on and in the place I’m in spiritually because I believe with my whole heart that God has led me there. And so I hold my position on His grace firm. But as I do, more often than I’d care to admit, I took my eyes off Jesus. I said “If it’s you Lord, call me to you… let me walk on the water”. He said come. But instead of one step at a time, eyes fixed on Him, walking in peace… I jumped onto a jet ski and let ‘er rip.
And then… this is what I heard:
“If you seek ME you will find ME… Don’t seek points to defend. I am capable of my own defense. And if you seek ME first, all these things that you are believing for will be added to you.” Woh… talk about a Selah moment.
So here is what I know… I know that there is a God and that He loves. I know that He loves us so much that He made a sacrifice I know I could never make for a bunch of sinners… just so we would have a way back to Him. I know that if we seek HIM, we will find HIM. I know that I don’t know it all… but neither do you… and neither does the writer of that article I mentioned… and neither does my favorite preacher… and neither (well… you get the picture). I know that when Peter started to sink and asked for Jesus to save him, HE did. And so I know HE will always pick me up too. One of these days my jet ski will run out of gas. I’m believing today is that day.  A pastor friend of mine once prayed over me and said that God was showing him a picture of me as a little girl, surrounded by thousands of puzzle pieces, frustratingly trying to fit them together. *sigh* One more piece down… only a few thousand to go.