“We are living in a grace period, every one of us! Certainly there are blessings you’ve already received, for which you are eternally grateful. But isn’t it awe inspiring to know that God is currently preparing blessings for you and you for blessings? And, I might add, blessings beyond your ability to ask or imagine!”- Mark Batterson (emphasis author’s)
“O, for a thousand tongues to sing / My great Redeemer’s praise! / The glories of my God and King, / The triumphs of His grace.”- John Wesley
In his Epilogue (“The Year of Blessing”) to Double Blessing, Mark Batterson talks about the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Members of the elite Old Guard walk the mat in front of the tomb 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Each guard marches a precisely pace twenty-one steps and pauses to pay respect for twenty-one measured seconds. Then, the guard makes an about-face to repeat that sacred sequence until relieved of duty.
So, Pastor Batterson asks, why perform the changing of the guard with such attention to detail? Because countless unknown men and women paid for our blessings in full with blood, sweat, and tears. Thus, our freedom as Americans came at tremendous cost.
Yet, Mark stresses, it’s impossible to take full inventory of God’s blessings. However, only eternity will tell the full story of blessing. And, Pastor Batterson writes, that instinct is hardwired into the human soul:
“There is a similar (homing instinct) hardwired into the human soul — the longing to be blessed by God. It’s our earliest memory! In the words of Saint Augustine, ‘You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. . . . Blaise Pascal called it the God-shaped hole. Pope Francis called it ‘nostalgia for God.’ We cannot reach the full measure of our potential or find the full measure of meaning in life without God. Why? That’s whose image we bear. . . whose next we come from. That’s who blessed us in the beginning.”
Today’s question: What Bible verses sustain you when you’re living in a grace period? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Something pilfered our happiness”
