THE BLESSING OF A BEATING HEART
Earlier last week as I laid on my bed, the position I was in enabled me to feel the rhythm of my heart. As I became relaxed and still, I paid special attention to the movements, visualizing the organ as it circulated blood flow through its valves. Feeling these pulsations in my chest brought me to peace as I fell in awe and wonder of God: Do we slow down enough to appreciate that which we have no control over, but which have such significant roles in our lives? Feeling my heartbeat reminded me I am not in control of anything other than my choices. And by the grace of God, even those are influenced through faith in Jesus, that I can see what I would otherwise remain blind to without. What is it we cannot see without the grace of the Holy Spirit?
BLIND TO GRACE
The truth is that the answer to this question would be fruitless to those having not first received God’s grace. But receiving God’s grace undoubtedly answers the question on its own. In other words, to have received God’s grace is to be humbled enough keep it; to not have God’s grace is to be blind to the treasure of knowing we need it.
I would like to spend this article appreciating God’s grace and looking more deeply into the experience of recognizing the beauty of what isn’t ours to give ourselves.
RECEIVING GRACE
Honestly, grace was, more or less, a weightless spiritual term for me before recently. While it held its place in the spiritual conversation, the character of grace did not live up to its name. Little did I understand until recently that it was because I had not received grace more fully, rather, I had only taken notice of grace on the surface. To know of grace — as a religious term — is to have knowledge of a word without its context or purpose. To receive grace is to feel renewed in our heart by realizing we are in need of divine correction. Without grace, we will not desire correction. We may view ourselves as a work in progress, believing we know how to fix what is broken on our own. The problem is, we believe we can correct ourselves while misunderstanding what it means to be corrected, when in fact, it is our skewed understanding of “correctness” that prevents us from understanding that that very notion is the problem.
DIRECTIONS TO A MEANINGLESS DESTINATION
Grace instigates change on the inside. God reframes our understanding of what it means to receive an outpouring of His love, rather than knowing of His gift as if directions to a place we’ll never travel to. What difference would it make to know how to get somewhere we’re not interested in going? What difference would grace make if we could not understand the current state of our soul? Grace pulls away the veil and reveals, with the light of Christ, the dark space that is our blindness. We cannot remove a veil if we can’t take notice of an obscuration of our view.
INTERNAL EXCAVATION AND REBIRTH
It’s possible for grace to be believed, but still not received. There is a difference. Received grace can be noticed in the fruit of a person’s actions. When we receive grace, there is an internal shift—an entire excavation of our original self to make space for our new self. What’s amazing is that with in receiving grace, our spiritual eyes are opened, and we find ourselves desiring this excavation. Afterwards, we begin to understand Christ’s goal through His death and resurrection, and we become witnesses to our own transformation.
CHRISTIAN “BRAIN-WASHING”
Some people fear or suspect this “excavation process” to be what some might call the brain-washing effects of Christianity. Let me be clear—there is no manipulation or deception taking place. The truth of the Spirit of Christ speaks for itself. We cannot stop grace from interacting with our spirits anymore than we can stop water from being wet— this is the natural communication between God’s grace and our spirit. Grace does not need manipulation to have an impact; its intrinsic form reveals our most inner self by wiping the manipulation and deception of sin from our eyes; no facades, no defenses, no excuses—only the truth.
The reality of grace is that it changes our view of ourselves. When we see ourselves differently—spiritually-speaking—our new spiritual view changes how we see the world around us as well. Likewise, once we understand who we are by the power of God’s grace, there is no returning to our previous identity (life before Christ) because to return would be to pretend not to see what cannot be unseen.
LIBERATED BY A LACK OF CONTROL
When I felt my heart beating while lying down, I acknowledged to myself that at any moment, my heart could simply stop. This realization is grace itself in action, reminding me how beautiful it is not to be in control of everything. We are given so much control, and yet to truly see our lives from the bigger picture (what I like to call the “bird’s eye view”), we realize that the control we have is so little—and yet, it is enough.
CONNECT WITH ME
If you resonated with this article and would like to read more, please follow this blog, and please share this with anyone. You may also find me my Facebook page at Lance Price Blog, Twitter at LancePriceBlog, Instagram at lancepriceblog, Pinterest at LancePriceBlog, or on Tumblr at lancepriceblog. Feel free to leave any thoughts or feelings regarding this article in the comments below, or write me privately using my Contact page. May God bless you, readers!
Vessel For Christ 
And after a long time finally you post. You inspire me Sir. 🙂
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Hi Sparsha! Haha, yes this past month has been a bit of a roller coaster for me, and I have not been able to write as a result. I’m always touched by your responses, and I appreciate your words here. 🙂 Hope you’re doing well and that you took something positive away from this!
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Yes. I was wondering where you vanished. It’s okay, I’m glad you wrote this. I’ve always loved reading your blogs, they inspire me and keep me motivated. I’m good, hope you’re too. 🙂
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Thank you, Sparsha! I’m so glad my articles inspire you. 🙂 That is God at work! I’m doing better now, and I’m grateful to hear you’re doing well, too. God bless you!
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I’ve been trying so hard to daily take in God’s grace and wonderful creations! It can be a hard thing to do with all of the distractions, but it gets easier as you make a habit out of it.
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Hi Kristen! I hear you, there is a lot the enemy does to try to steer our attention away from God’s movement around us. But I agree that we can become more perceptive of the way God’s grace works in our lives as we continually pray and stay focused in the moment, appreciating the little things He does for us along the way. 🙂 God bless!
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With me lately it’s definitely been through keeping my plate full. I’m trying to push the brakes and slow down and come to a much needed period of rest.
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Thanks for sharing that. I think that’s extremely relatable. We tend to associate busy-ness or a complete life with doing as much as we can–often times in the belief that life is too short to do any less. But you make a relevant point in how humans need rest as well as activity in order to fulfill what one may consider a well-lived life. I think this realization makes you wiser, and you will reap more because of it (I’m sure your body will respond more aptly as well!).
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You’re welcome Lance! We sure do. I don’t even realize I’m going 90 to nothing until I’m out gas most days. But I’m working on it. Haha my body hates me right now.
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It takes time to adjust to a new lifestyle once we’ve engaged in one for a long time. I believe that is where surrender is required. Surrendering our thoughts as well as our habits/rituals/routines in place of something different to get our focus outside of what is hurting us inside. I believe you will get there. I am sorry to hear about your current situation, but I pray you will find relief soon in the days ahead. This will be more of your personal testimony of His goodness and grace!
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It’s amazing what being intentional can do. Just in the last week alone God has brought me out of my crazy and sat me down to where I can listen to Him. Yes, surrendering. It should be a daily habit. Thank you for your words of encouragment over the past few days!
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Amen to that, Kristen! Keep walking in faith be glad when He slows you down. 🙂 It’s a blessing to me to be able to encourage you and others! May God’s blessings be abundant in your life, and may He give you the eyes to see and ears to hear what He’s calling you to into–rest or otherwise. I’m excited for you!
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Thank you so much Lance!
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Lance, you have such a powerful way of sharing your story.
Thank you for your honesty and the hope that you offer here. I pray that it will lead many to a relationship with Christ.
Blessings to you!
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Marva, I am truly humbled by your comment, thank you! My hope is that with each article, readers can and will find themselves making their way closer to desiring or having a relationship with Jesus. May God bless you with a joy and hope unlike any you’ve experienced before, Marva!
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Lance,
Of course the topic you picked immediately spoke to my grace-loving heart, the gentle way you laid out the layers of reason and insight inspired by His amazing grace and undeniable love really blessed me. This is the first time I have had a chance to visit your blog, and I was both encouraged and challenged to look again at the depth of His Grace for us. I don’t think we’ll ever get to the end of it as we search and seek Him out, it will always be the buffer that hedges us into Him … always bound by His love. Grace is always the gift where His mercy is the motive.
Thanks for sharing this post with the #GraceMoments community.
Blessings,
Dawn
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Dawn, I’m so glad this article blessed you in some way. I always pray God will use these articles to speak His truth to someone and anyone. Like you said, I don’t think we get to the end of His grace, but that it will continually refine us and remind us of who is King. Thank you for reading this, and I pray He blesses you with an uncontainable joy you will never forget!
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[…] Sometimes, in the midst of spiritual chaos, there is no happy ending in sight. That is a reality just as there is no war without bloodshed and pain. We began our introspection with the question, “What do you believe, and why?” This question leads us in many directions without an effective compass. We know we cannot expect logic to help us determine a direction because the brain cannot comprehend the spirit. In the middle of this desert-like darkness myself, I have few helpful words to write about where to turn to other than towards the hope that a response from Jesus will come. I am not without any personal experiences inviting me to believe Jesus is real in my life, but I am attempting to understand whether my previous experiences conjured a belief I wanted to cling to for the sake of having something to cling to (careening on the periphery of nihilism while insinuating a lack of genuine surrender to the invitation of Christianity from the start), or whether my beliefs were conjured inevitably from a supernatural source of spiritual transcendence (grace). […]
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