One of the songs Michala sent to me several months ago that has been on our repeat playlist (and is even my morning alarm, some days) is Good Grace by Hillsong United. I love this song so much. I especially love the bridge of the song, “Swing wide all you heavens, let the praise go up as the walls come down, all creation, everything with breath repeat the sound. All His children, clean hands, pure hearts, good grace, good God, His name is Jesus.”
“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” - Hebrews 12:15 (NIV)
It is all about God’s grace. Pastor Steve was so precious recently when he told us, “It’s all about God’s grace and His goodness; not ours. God does not want your perfection, He wants you to be present and involved. Drink in His grace so it pours out of you.” While he was sharing his message, he walked over to where Terry and I were sitting and he stood on my toes. He put all of his weight, and then some, on my toes.
Okay, so that’s not true. But he did step on my toes … figuratively, not literally. I cannot tell you how many times I have fallen way short of the grace of God and allowed some bitter roots to plant themselves deep into my heart. This has caused Sassy Pants Aimee to be walking around, rather than “Grace guzzling Aimee” to be the one present.
I am not proud of this. Not one single bit. In fact, I am ashamed. I am ashamed that I sometimes allow the enemy to use people who are not right with God to enter our thoughts and steal our joy and peace. But there have been times when I have done just that. I have allowed the thieves and liars in this life to steal my joy. This causes a bitter root to grow and in turn, causes trouble. Because when I allow what the evil people in our lives have done to us to control my thoughts, roots get planted and they grow.
But when I focus on God’s goodness and His grace, the Holy Spirit controls my thoughts. I am then able to do what Pastor Steve told us: drink and guzzle His grace, and then it pours out of us.
One day, Terry and I got to stroll through Key West and we saw this tree. It is absolutely massive. The roots must stretch out for miles and miles. I don’t want my heart to grow bitter and grow roots that spread for a long way in my life. I took a picture of the tree because it was beautiful, but I look at it now as a reminder to not let the bitter root grow and grow and grow.