Daily Grace Blog

God's Character

The Wanderer’s Returning

Bible Study

By Emily S. Davis  
Guest Contributor 

It’s not that I meant to wander. It’s not that I purposefully determined in my heart to stray from my first love. It was the sinking revelation that I had made the Lord familiar, commonplace. When had His name stopped being so very precious to me? When had things that once moved me suddenly fail to move me anymore? When had that passion for Him become an unrecognizable flicker? 

Over time. 

Slowly, without purposed intention and devotion and priority to fuel the once passionate heart of mine, my soul slowly withered, and Jesus became a familiar aspect of my life, commonplace and taken for granted, when He is anything but common. 

Tricked by life’s busyness and Satan’s cunning patience to slowly lead me away, I didn’t recognize myself as a wanderer until I reflected and realized I had strayed from my first love. This wanderer stood in her pit—with a name that no longer seemed precious, with a hardened heart that wasn’t so easily moved, and a passion in crisis. 

The book of Hosea also describes the story of a nation’s wandering status. The people of Israel were God’s own people, and He had not just become familiar to them—they decided He wasn’t enough for them.…

A Call to Remember

Christian Living

By Jana White  
Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co.  

God often called His people to remember. In Deuteronomy 8, we see a particular case of Moses calling the people of God to do that very thing. Although it can be difficult for us to remember previous seasons in our lives, there is value in remembering where we have been and how the Lord has been faithful to us in every season—in good and bad, in discipline and in assurance.…

The Compassionate Nature of God

Encouragement

By Aubrey Coleman 
Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co. 

When we think about God, a multitude of attributes and characteristics may come to mind—powerful, eternal, omniscient, sovereign, glorious, and too many to name. We think of Him often with the grandest distinctions, reasoning with the idea that He is not like us and rightfully so.…

3 Things to Remember When You Feel Forgotten by God

Encouragement

By Joy Lopes 
Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co. 

It is tempting to feel as though God has forgotten us in seasons of suffering. 

“If He knows the pain this is causing me, why has He left me in it?” 

Other seasons may be filled with temptations toward sin that feel unbearable and leave you questioning whether God sees your struggle. 

“Doesn’t He see how hard I am fighting?…

God is Creating in Our Waiting

God's Character

By Aubrey Coleman 
Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co. 

Well into my first pregnancy, I am astounded by the work that is happening inside of me and despite me. Here I am, daily awaiting the arrival of our little girl, and God is hard at work shaping her tiny body, crafting each finger and strand of hair, creating her eye color, her vital organs, and her personality.…

Who Will Be with You in the Fire? 

Community

By Sarah Morrison
Former Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co.  

We’ve all been through fires—burnt, scorned, and seared. And as long as our feet are planted on this earth, we will go through more. There is no shortage of suffering for this world to dole out to its inhabitants—relationships, jobs, and bodies have all been ravaged by a broken and dissonant world—a world that needs more of Jesus. …

The Sovereignty of God

God's Character

By Jana White 
Editor for The Daily Grace Co. 

This year most of us have experienced something unprecedented. We have faced a global pandemic—a virus that spread throughout the world causing death and destruction. With this came a disruption in normalcy.…

It Was the Will of the Lord to Crush Him

God's Character

By Joy Lopes 
Staff Writer for The Daily Grace Co. 

Honesty Hour  

A tainted view that I held for many years and have heard from the hearts and mouths of believing and unbelieving friends alike, is that God the Father only loves us because of what Jesus did on the cross—that before Jesus’ sacrifice, God did not love or want me and that His wrath was against me fully and finally, until Jesus stepped in to appease Him. 

The lie of those words feels heavy even to write, but it is something I believed for a long time. In those years of misunderstanding, I did not know there was anything wrong with my theology—what I believed about God. I figured it did not matter much because I was in Christ, and so God the Father saw Him and not me anymore. I thought I was hidden from Him; I did not have to face His disappointment, disapproval, or rejection. In a way, it was like I had disappeared completely, and only Christ was left–which is not wholly false.  

Scripture Interprets Scripture  

But I would read verses like Galatians 2:20 which says that I have been crucified with Christ and He is now the One who lives, and I would use that to fuel that misconception of Father God’s view of me. The Scriptures themselves do not pollute our understanding of God, but the preconceptions we bring to them can influence our application, or misapplication, of the Bible. This is why we need Scripture to interpret Scripture for us and not our own, extrabiblical ideas. This means that we should rely on other parts of the Bible to shape our understanding of more difficult passages and continually ask the Holy Spirit to guide us.  

If I had allowed the rest of the Bible to influence my understanding of Galatians 2:20, I would have understood that while its words were completely true—that I have been crucified with Christ and that He lives perfectly in my place before the Father—I would have also seen that Jesus’ blood covers me in this way because the Father purposed that it should, in order to draw me near to Himself. His blood cleanses me to make me presentable to the Father, not to hide me from His view (Ephesians 5:25-27).…

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