Grace.

2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

I often wonder why I'm so surprised that some of the ugliest of days hold the most beautiful outcomes.  This scripture is such an amazing reminder that God can work in and through our weaknesses.  We live in a dark world...full of sin and so much hurt and pain...and it literally can take a deep breath and a prayer for grace and mercy to take that step directly into God's grace.  Sometimes that deep breath is the hardest breath we've ever had to take.  And sometimes that prayer for grace and mercy is said with trembling hands and a broken heart.

I'm incredibly grateful for the gifts of encouragement, support and strength that God has given me. Not gifts of my own, but through those He has championing me through this life.  It is entirely too easy to walk the roads in our life, assuming we are alone.  Assuming that no one would ever understand, or that we are beyond repair.  The little lies that creep in and tell us who we are, pile up in the most overwhelming ways sometimes and it takes being still to understand that our identity in Christ is the only 'me' that matters.  

I am fiercely independent.  I am somewhat rebellious. And I have weaknesses to talk about until the cows come home.  And I realize when I'm not rooted in God's word...when I'm not surrounding myself with people that God has gifted me with in this life to reiterate the Truth about who God says that I am...I crumble.  The weight of each and every lie can cause me to walk through foggy days of suffocation that scream of relentless isolation.

The beautiful part of it all...is that I have a Savior that died on a cross for all of my wayward independence, for all of my rebellion and for each and every weakness that threatens the joy in my life.  The encouragement I'm documenting for myself today, is that the deep breath is worth it Every. Single. Time.  The broken cries for grace and mercy result in the kind of healing that brings light to Christ's power in my life.  

~Whitney