Truth is, we don't get grace. But it sure can get us.

If you fear you've written too many checks on God's kindness account, drag regrets around like a broken bumper, huff and puff more than you delight and rest, and, most of all, if you wonder whether God can do something with the mess of your life, then grace is what you need.

You'll never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

God doesn't manufacture pain, but he certainly puts it to use.

When times get hard, remember Jesus. When tears come, remember Jesus. When fear pitches his tent in your front yard. When death looms, when anger singes, when shame weighs heavily. Remember Jesus. Can you still remember? Are you still in love with Him? Remember, Paul begged, remember Jesus. Before you remember anything, remember Him. If you forget anything, don't forget Him.

2. David majors in God. He sees the giant, mind you; he just sees God more so.

what you have in Christ is greater than anything you don't have in life. You have God, who is crazy about you, and the forces of heaven to monitor and protect you.

The star Betelgeuse has a diameter of 100 million miles, which is larger than the earth's orbit around the sun.4 Why the immensity? Why such vast, unmeasured, unexplored, "unused" space? So that you and I, freshly stunned, could be stirred by this resolve: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13 NKJV).

Grace is a God who stoops.

The meaning of life. The wasted years of life. The poor choices of life. God answers the mess of life with one word: grace.

God, help me let go of my need to deprive myself of being alive.

Don't give up hope. It took many of us twenty years or more to acquire these protective behaviors we umbrella with the word codependency. It may take as much time as that to let go of them.