”Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace.
And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”
~Jerry Bridges
In the time I've been a hostess for In "Other" Words, I've been continually amazed at the way things can change between the time I select the quote and submit it and the time I actually sit down to compose a post weeks or months later. Such is the case again this time...and with only a few weeks in between!
As I've mentioned before, 2010 was a "good" year for us...it certainly wasn't perfect, and definitely had its {not-so-great} moments....but compared to the six previous years...it was a year of peace and rest for us. When I selected this quote in early January (or somewhere thereabouts...:)), I was on a roll of "good days" and even "best days". God had blessed us immensely in so many ways through the holidays and the turmoil of the last half-decade plus seemed to be fading into a somewhat-hazy memory.
I was even *almost* over that "waiting for the other shoe to drop" feeling that had been fallowing me around since 2006. Occasionally it would tap me on the shoulder, wave from across the room, or wake me up in the night...but very, very rarely anymore.
And yet God had taught me much during the relative "peace" of 2010. Lessons quite different than the ones learned in the midst of trauma and pain, but lessons, nonetheless. One of the biggest was summed up in the second line of this week's quote..."...your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace."
We'd been through six years of some of the most intense storms life has to offer. In those years, there was no doubt whatsoever of our need for God's grace. We clung to it as a drowning man clings to a life preserver. And in His amazing faithfulness, He taught us clearly the truth that "Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace." Even in the days that I wrestled...the days that I doubted God's goodness for the first time in my almost-40 years, and the days that the concept of God's sovereignty just made me downright mad...even on those days, His grace gently reached down and pulled me close to His heart, as a Shepherd carrying His baby lamb. (Isa. 40:11)
More recently, though, as we've enjoyed a bit of calm in the midst of the storm...knowing that our storms are far from over, but enjoying the peaceful periods while they last...we've been reminded over and over again that we don't just need His grace on the "bad days". We don't just need His grace in the midst of the storm...in fact, sometimes we need it *more* on the good days.
On the good days, we sometimes forget that we need that life preserver we've been clinging to so fiercely through the stormy times. It's easy to float along, enjoying the sun on our face, forgetting that we can't swim on our own. The good days are the days we need His grace to remind us that we can do nothing in our own strength, that we are to die to self daily, that we must fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
The "good days" that we were enjoying when I selected this quote were swallowed up by my sudden severe pain flare and out-of-the blue renewed trauma issues in our children soon after the first of the year. We went from enjoying bountifully good days to facing deep, dark bad days in what seemed like nothing flat. And yet God's amazing grace didn't change. He has sustained and comforted and blessed us even through the hard days, and as we seem to be moving back now into a possible period of peace, He is giving wisdom and strength and perseverance to catch up and continue with the tasks to which He has called us.
I am so thankful for God's grace for *every* day...and for the truth that at our very worst...in our sin, our pain, our grief...we are never beyond the reach of His grace, and at our very best...when we are on the mountaintop, delighting in His blessings and goodness and worshiping Him for All that He is...we are never beyond the need of it.
It is truly amazing...EVERY day....
Join us today for In "Other" Words. Share your thoughts on the quote, link up here (with the direct link to today's post, please, not the main page of your blog...), and then visit others to read their thoughts as well. I look forward to reading your take on today's quote!