Covered with Love

15 What then?  Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ----- Romans 6:15 - 18

Philip Yancey calls it grace abuse: taking God's forgiving grace for granted, and forging ahead according to my own plans and desires.  Grace abuse is continuing to live as a slave to sin, "trusting" God's grace to bail me out. This is what cheapens grace. And it's effects are damaging to the Kingdom of God.

God's grace does indeed cover me. He has lavished me with forgiveness. In this same letter to the church in Rome, Paul reminds me that there is nothing in this world or in the spiritual realm that will ever come between me and God's grace.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord -----Romans 8:38 - 39

This is such an awesome promise to take hold of, to put my trust in: there will never be a distance, a gap...a breath...between me and God's love.  Nothing will come between me and His love! That's a promise on which to build my faith. It surrounds me.  NO, it covers me.  I belong to Him, and He will never abandon me.  Because of that, don't I owe Him everything? Because I will always have the support of the One, True God, the Almighty and Eternal, should I not surrender all that I have, all that I am, to Him? Is there even such a thing as "my" will when considering all that I have in Christ Jesus?

Yes, there is. I still have the ability to choose to go my own way--to sin--or to choose obedience. This great God has not covered me with an encumbering, robotic conformity. Instead He has entrusted to me willful obedience. I have the ability to choose His ways. And when I surrender my self-centered desires and ambitions--when I choose to obey the ways of God--I choose to love Him. Obeying God is my greatest act of love. It means I trust His outcomes. I hold His promises with deepest faith.  The grace of God is with me through whatever I encounter. And I honor that grace when I choose to obey. That is slavery I can accept.