Is Grace All I Need?: Faith Learned From a Feral Kitten
2014-10-01 11:38:37, Wednesday
PERFECT TIMING, PERFECT VISION, PERFECT PLAN
I've been in this tent of my human earthly body for over four decades, as of a couple of weeks ago. I realize my flesh and bones are temporary. God could call me home any day. Hence, I do what I can to live every day as though it were my last. Some days, I am more successful than others, granted.
These forty years have taught me how God never works according to my timetable. I cannot think of one time He's answered my prayer or done what I wanted, when I wanted. For, He is God--and I most certainly am not. However, looking back, I can say every prayer He didn't answer how I wanted, and every prayer He didn't answer when I wanted, has worked out far better than if it would have been in the manner I preferred.
Need I mention how many times God has blessed me when I didn't expect it and certainly when I didn't deserve it? God blesses me in immeasurable and innumerable ways each and every day, if only I would stop and pay attention and acknowledge them.
God has perfect timing. After all, He is perfect, infinite, all-powerful, ever-present, all-knowing. He seems with limitless, perfect vision, while I see with sinful, limited vision. Thank God He is the One in control. He is beyond time, for He created time. This only adds to His perfect vision and timing.
I've lived four decades and can say without hesitation how God has perfect timing, a perfect plan, and perfect vision.
Over the last week and four days, God has put two things in my path, at just the right time, in just the right way, and both have been undeniably Him.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
3 There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
The first thing God has allowed in my life is a feral kitten who has adopted us. She is malnourished, deaf, and declawed. She adopted us, and we adopted her, for about eleven days now. She's been in our garage, though, for six days so far.
The other thing God has put in my life, at the perfect time, was a blog post by Max Lucado. You can find it here:
Max Lucado: Content
What Max Lucado talks about is this: IS GOD'S GRACE SUFFICIENT? IS IT ENOUGH?
Is His grace enough?
Is His grace enough?
Is His grace all I need?
Is His grace all I want?
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Expanded Bible (EXB)
9 But he said to me, “My grace is ·enough for you [sufficient for you; all you need]. ·When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you [L For (my) power is perfected in weakness].” So I am very happy to ·brag [boast] about my weaknesses. Then Christ’s power can ·live [reside; or rest] in me. 10 For this reason I am ·happy [pleased; content] when I have weaknesses, insults, ·hard times [times of need], ·sufferings[persecutions], and ·all kinds of troubles [distress] ·for [for the sake of] Christ. Because when I am weak, then I am truly strong.
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PRAYER JOURNALING AND CONTEMPLATION QUESTIONS
Prayer journal your response to each of those questions. Write your thoughts now--and keep coming back to these questions consistently over the next twenty-four hours. Keep expanding upon your answers. Then, do the same every couple of days, then ever week, for the next year--and see how you and your life are changed because of the question: Is grace enough for me and my life? Imagine how much your answer will change throughout today, this week, this month, this quarter, this year, this decade, and over the rest of your life.
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Kara, my feral kitten (four to five months from what my husband, B, and I can tell) has taught me a great deal about faith. Then, add the Max Lucado email and the question of: Is grace enough for me and my life, and I am forced to stop and analyze things. Never mind how it is the last quarter of the year. Three months are left this year. (As I write this, it's October 01, 2014.)
Hence, I'm going to start writing a new blog post series, which I think I will write during NaNoWriMo (National Novel writing Month, but it will be a non-fiction, Christian living, Bible study, devotional, spiritual memoir type). It's called:
Is Grace All I Need?: Faith Learned From a Feral Kitten
(Image Credit: Stacy Duplease and Remembering your Present, LLC 2014. Kara. Feral Kitten 4-5 months old. Taken Sept. 30, 2014.)
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