This week’s devotions are based on “The Key” Week 3: “Ground Your family in grace!” (WATCH HERE)
Permit a bit of transparency this morning.
It’s been an emotional week. I don’t show my emotions much, but have to admit that my heart is a bit heavy as I write this. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been in the ICU to visit a member who suffered a fall, a stroke, and a heart attack and as a result had a broken hip. After a week or so in the ICU the family decided to bring him home to finish the days God has for him in his own home. Confined to a bed, his dear wife and family along with great caregivers keep him company. This same couple has been watching their son slowly deteriorate because of cancer and said their final goodbye to him on Tuesday of this week. This morning (writing this Thursday afternoon) I sat with another member whose mom went from putting an offer on a house on Sunday evening to being on a ventilator struggling for life. God’s plan for her on this earth may be short.
I suppose added to that is a personal van with a failing transmission and our older daughter headed back to school to do a summer job and it all piles up to consider, “What is really important?”
Life can get very busy. We have our work schedule, our children’s schedule, our social schedule, our volunteer schedule, and more. Days turn into weeks, turn into years, and plans continue as if we are guaranteed a never ending supply of time. And then we aren’t and the days we thought we’d have are no longer.
Then what?
The blessing of sitting with these families is that both have a grounding in grace. Amidst the tears and the heartache and the sadness is the ability to find peace knowing that the ones at the end of their life are safe in the grace of God and covered in the blood of Jesus.
Nothing other than the grace of God transfers from this life to the next.
Not education.
Not possessions.
Not careers.
Not pets.
Not athletics.
Nothing.
Only the grace of God.
When our last breath is taken, what matters most is Jesus.
Jesus goes with us from this life to the next.
Jesus takes our family members with him as well.
So to enjoy an eternity with Jesus as a family…
Ground your family in his grace!
Revelations 7:9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
Apply: What is one thing you can do today to ground yourself and a family member more deeply in the grace of God?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your grace. Forgive us for the distractions in life that keep us away from your grace. Remind us daily that the most important thing in life is to be grounded in your grace. AMEN.