The cross welcomes us to look inside and around us and be dissatisfied. It welcomes us not to the dissatisfaction that leaves us hopeless, but a dissatisfaction that leads us to the foot of the cross where mercy and grace are found.

Our hope in this life and the one to come is never to be found in our willingness to believe in and follow him, but in his willingness to endure suffering and death for us. His willingness unleashes the grace we need to be forgiven and to become more and more willing to lay down our lives for his kingdom and his glory.

Faith is a deep-seated belief in the existence of God that radically alters the way you live your life. Now, here's the rub. Faith isn't natural for us. Biblical faith is counterintuitive and countercultural. So we even need God's grace to have faith to believe in the existence of the One whose grace we so desperately need. And the grace is yours for the asking again today.

God was teaching Israel that they must no longer look at life from the vantage point of human wisdom and strength because they were now the children of the Lord almighty. Their world of weakness and limits had been invaded by One of awesome grace and glory.

Peace comes when you rest in the fact that grace has connected you to the One who has overcome everything that could cause your heart to be troubled, and nothing can sever that connection.

None of us is yet a grace graduate, but we're satisfied. We all give evidence that we still need to grow, but we're satisfied. And because we are satisfied, we are resistant to the grace that is our only hope.

God will call you to do what you cannot do, but will provide everything you need to do it.

Your Lord pries open your hands and takes away your crutches and distractions. He exposes your weaknesses so that you will cry out for what he knows you need, but what you have been willing to live without.

It really does take grace to know how much you need grace.

The way to begin to celebrate the grace that God so freely gives you every day is by admitting how much you need it.

Only powerful, rescuing grace can take you from "Let me do what I want to do" to "Guard me against the temptation to do what you know is best for me not to do.

Here's what you need to understand: your faith is not your hope; his zealous grace is the only source of hope for fickle-faith sinners.