Completed Grace - You're not incomplete

You feel helpless in the moment of your despair. You leave your debit card or your checkbook at home; you are standing there feeling incomplete as the checker has a grim look on his or her face. I have left my cash once and it is embarrassing. Ever feel inadequate because you overslept and you had ten people waiting on you to open the store and customers are driving by because they think you are closed? I have done that before and it felt humiliating. Felt like you needed that V-8 as you virtually slap yourself in the head, thinking you should not have said that? I have done that too, not waiting for the facts and only receiving them after the words had left my mouth.

The more we tend to focus on our human inadequacies, the easier it is to feel hopeless. How do we handle these events without feeling we are incomplete or hopeless? It is learning to accept being incomplete and allowing yourself to grow in grace.

You see Grace is not about God’s riches as Christ’s expense. Grace moves beyond someone’s expense to help them feel complete or restored to favor. Grace is about relationships. Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve and mercy is God not giving us what we do deserve. Grace does not permit us to live in the flesh. Grace dispenses the power to live in the spirit. Grace recognizes that is it God who works in you (Phil 2:13).

We grow in grace by growing in the knowledge of how to work with relationships. We have to empty out our thoughts that hold us back from the truth and allow God to work in order to find life that allows us to grow. Growing does not mean change. Growing means to add on. We don’t make or save ourselves and that is where we feel incomplete. Grace makes us complete because it is God that does the making and the saving.

In the Middle East, like Jordan, they have a unique way of building houses. On the outside of their houses are pieces of steel rooted into concrete called rebar. Rebar is part of the design of the house and as Americans, we think that the house is not completely finished; there is more to be added on. The rebar is the planning of future growth. When the family grows, such as a new marriage and soon to be children, the father will make room for this addition to his family. They are willing to feel incomplete, but always ready to be molded and shaped into something more.

We are all under construction. Humans constantly are growing their heart and minds as well as their relationships, whether we add or take away. However, what goes on inside of the human heart is important. Sometimes what we feel is not necessarily the right thought. The right thought doesn't mean we can feel. Processing thoughts and feelings in a mind blender is often messy with confusion. Feelings feed from thoughts. Thoughts feed into feelings. The key to feeling completed is to understand that we have the key ingredients... it’s the baking and testing that makes us feel incomplete. Be confident and accept yourself as being incomplete. It is what you are adding or taking away in your life that can keep you from feeling completed.

Feeling incomplete does not mean you are not worthy. It means you are still growing. Disregard the negative thought of not having it all together. We are still under construction and your life is your testimony to others as to how a Supreme Being is working and building, an ongoing process. However, are you willing to grow in grace? Grace means Growing Relationships A Cherishing Experience.

What a neat picture for us: those who are willing to live with “incomplete” today because their desire is to be prepared to grow for tomorrow. We are in such a hurry to be done. We hate the idea of anyone thinking that we don’t have it all together. In reality, we are under construction.

Our lives are testaments to the truth that God is at work within us. It is a building process that will take a lifetime. Being willing and prepared to grow into the next stage is essential. Offering grace to others means you are willing to grow that relationship that can be cherished. It is about doing the right thing regardless of the wrong. It is not about subjection, but more of submission in a healthy thinking way. You are worthy. You are complete. Grow in grace. Allow the Son-shine warm you as you peak from under the covers to a new day, even when you feel incomplete.

Grace (growing relationships a cherishing experience) allows you to feel complete in order to help another person grow; a new relationship blossoms when grace is involved. Instead of the checker having a grim face, a polite interfacing of grace would be to smile and say here is $5.00 for your trouble. I will be right back to collect what I owe. Have a blessed day. The grim is now turned into laughter and happiness all because you chose grace. You do not feel incomplete, but because you added someone into your human error: you made grace complete.

By Faith (Forging Attitude In Trusting Him)