Problems are a reality of life.  We don’t like them and we do our best to avoid them, but live life long enough and you are going to have your fair share.  The big problem with problems is not so much our problems, but our trust.

If God allows a problem to come into our life, then we can count on the fact that He knows about us and our problem and He has a plan.  I think that sometimes God allows the problems to flow into and through our lives, so that we might have the opportunity to trust in Him more and better.

We often think of trust as a one time event, but it is really an ongoing thing that allows me to grow in my relationship.  Trusting God means that we stay close to Him and responsive to His will.  This is not our natural response, and so this is something that we have to work at.

To grow our trust, we must exercise our faith in Him and His plans and this will grow our trust as we learn to walk with Him moment by moment and day by day.  This does not mean that we have not and will not ever get hurt.  Hurt is actually one of the motivations that helps us to turn away from self and toward Him.

It’s easy to trust God in some situations and hard to trust God in others.  I want to learn to trust Him in all situations, not just some.  I don’t have to understand everything or have all the answers to trust and when I trust, His presence and power is guaranteed.

Lord, Help me to get through this day, through this moment, trusting You.  Give me what I need to live victoriously according to Your plans.  I want to depend on You, I need to depend on You, so in this moment I give myself to You and leave the next moment to You!

One of the reasons we do Grace Place is because we want to touch even more people with God’s grace, mercy, love, forgiveness and restoration.  This is not just words on a page, this is a major part of our purpose, a big time reason why we do a lot of the things we do.

Last Sunday, I shared a message on this very thing and all this week we have been talking about the different components of touch that allow us to experience, share and grow in God.  Today, I want to focus for just a few moments on an ultimate part of the goal:  Restoration!

Restoration is the hard work of repairing that which has been broken, fitting that which has become unfit, framing that which has become unframed and mending that which is coming a part.  Restoration is hard work, but there is good news:  God has already done most of the heavy lifting!

Galatians 6:1-5 gives us our instruction:  “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 3 If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. 4 Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load.”

Restoration is not about putting things the way you want them or think they should be.  Restoration is about putting things the way God intended them to be.  God’s amazing grace gives us what we could never earn or deserve.  God’s mercy keeps us from getting the punishment and separation that we have earned and do deserve.  God, Who is love, shares Himself and all that He is with me and gives me the ability to participate in the divine by giving to others this most precious of gifts.  This gift of love allows me to forgive which not only gives freedom to others, but allows me to experience the power of living unhindered and unrestricted.

We all have a choice to make.  Will we live for selfish reasons or for supernatural reasons?  Henery Drummond gives us some advice:  “Let man choose life; let him daily nourish his soul; let him forever starve the old life; let him abide continuously as a living branch in the Vine, and the true Vine life will flow into his soul, assimilating, renewing, conforming to type, till Christ, pledged by His own law, will be formed in him.”

God wants to take us to a place that we could never take ourselves.  Open your heart, spirit and mind, enjoy the gifts God has given you and as you live in the power of restoration, let your restored life give Him great glory.

This week we have taken a look at grace, mercy and love.  We have discovered that these are amazing gifts that God has blessed us with.  We also have come to realize that we do not exercise the use of these gifts near in the way we could or should.  Today we are going to look at another of the amazing gifts that God gives to us – the gift of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the act of pardon or release into freedom as if nothing ever happened.  Forgiveness is all about freedom.  Freedom for the one who gives the forgiveness and freedom for the one who receives the forgiveness.

Forgiveness can be given without someone asking for it.  For forgiveness to have power in our lives, we have to first be willing to receive the forgiveness that God has given to each one of us.  The receiving of God’s forgiveness, sets us free to live in relationship with Him.

After we have received forgiveness from God, then we are ready to give forgiveness to others.  We did not get forgiveness because we earned or deserved it.  We got forgiveness because God gave and we received.  We do not give forgiveness to others because they have earned or deserved it.  We give because God gave to us and we have learned that forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door and sets us free from our self-imposed prisons.

1 John 1:5-10 teaches:  “5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.”

Remember:  Forgiveness is about freedom for the one who gives and the one who receives.  Lewis B. Smedes writes in “Forgive And Forget:  Healing The Hurts We Don’t Deserve”:  “Forgiveness is God’s invention for coming to terms with a world in which, despite their best intentions, people are unfair to each other and hurt each other deeply.  He began by forgiving us.  And He invites us all to forgive each other.”

Receive forgiveness, give forgiveness, experience freedom and let the grace, mercy and love of God flow – you will be glad you did!