It’s All about Grace- {Guest Post by Lisa Phelps}

 

A Thanksgiving of PRAISE 

Welcomes:

Lisa Phelps writer of

A Moment with God

Growing up, it wasn’t my relationship with God that kept me out of trouble, even though I was saved at a very early age; it was my desire to follow rules.  As the oldest child, I was the “good girl”.  I didn’t do anything rebellious because I didn’t want to disappoint my parents.  I was the quiet, reliable, obedient one.   I knew my parents loved me, but I also felt like I could earn their approval by my behavior.  I transferred this thinking to my walk with God too.  I was “good” if I read my Bible and prayed and “bad” if I didn’t.  I felt confident about God’s love for me when I was doing the right things, the “church” things, but I questioned my standing with Him when I slacked in my duties.  It was all about rules and pleasing people.
Because I equated being like by God and people with keeping rules, somewhere along the way, I decided that people must keep my rules in order for me to like them.   I developed this hierarchy – I must “do” to please those above me and those below me must “do” to please me.  It was all about me – me pleasing and being pleased, and God got lost.  I didn’t even realize that I had stopped trying to please Him.


Amazing Grace
I may have forgotten about God, but He never forgot about me.  He had a plan to get my attention and draw me into an intimate, personal relationship with Him.  In a period of what seemed like just a couple of weeks, the bottom dropped out of our world.  Between letters from our mortgage bank, Ford Motor Credit, and the IRS, it looked like we were going to lose everything.  We couldn’t keep the rules and the world was turning against us.  But that’s when God stepped in and saved me.  
Yes, God did save us from some of financial problems, but that’s not the kind of saving I’m talking about.  God saved me from myself and my rules.  He began a process that still continues today.  I’m learning that it’s all about relationship, not rules.  God knows me and He loves me, not because of what I do, but because of who I am.  


Amazing Love
I never really saw myself as a person of value, because worth was based on rule-keeping, and I couldn’t keep all the rules.  But God sees things differently.  He sees me through the blood of Jesus.  God took me from an insecure, rule keeping, unhappy, not quite good enough girl and is turning me the woman I am today.  I still struggle at times with trying to please people and wanting them to please me, but I no longer question God’s love for me.  I’m constantly amazed at how He chooses to use me, but I understand that it has nothing to do with what I’ve done and everything to do with what Jesus did.  
Jesus loves you too!  You don’t have to earn His love, it’s unconditional.  And nothing you can do could ever separate you from that love.  I pray that this truth bring you freedom today.  God love you!

More About Lisa:

I have been married to my wonderful husband for 22 years and we have three beautiful children. I home school my youngest son and help my husband with his business. I am an office manager, worship leader, pastor's wife, church secretary, and child of God.  Basically, I am just an ordinary woman who desires to be available for use by God to do extraordinary things.  
I love to read the Bible and I share what I have been discovering in God’s Word at A Moment with God.