I woke early this morning with a word from our loving Lord for you.

‘Be still and know that I am God’ (or as the literal Hebrew reads: ‘Stop fighting and know that I am God’). ‘Accept one another, then, for the glory of God, as Christ has accepted you’ (Romans 15:7).

‘Stop fighting my sister. Submit to the Lord and to others, to the extent that grace is operating in your life and in theris. The Lord does not expect us to use reservoirs of grace which we do not have – nor does he expect others either. We are to ‘grow in grace’, yes, but grace is acceptance. We accept the other with the grace they have, not the grace they do not have: that’s essentially what grace does, according to the teaching and practice of Jesus.’

‘Of course, to be realistic one of the reasons we can’t do that is that we bring our woundedness into the present from grace-less relationships in the past. We ourselves were “sinned against”. But the Lord can heal those hurts, for his glory, and for our wholeness.’

Shalom – and Happy New Year!

Rowland Croucher