Nails and Grace

Yesterday morning, I was trying to understand grace all over again - how we are the righteousness of God in Christ. It was very hard for me to understand this earlier on in this journey because I did not understand what “righteousness” meant. Now, I know “made righteous” means that everything is alright between God and I because of Jesus’ blood.

I experience God's love for me when I realise that despite my fallen state and my sins, He still sees me as righteous.

Later in the evening, within minutes I had a prompting to go to Plaza Damas for a manicure partly because I was going to meet Henry and the kids anyway. I rarely go to a professional manicurist preferring to do it myself and even then, that is seldom. Imagine, Karen notices everytime I do put color on my face or nails!

I was having a manicure at Creative and it was cold and I started to cough. I was thinking ”Oh no! This is a bad idea!”. I was wondering how I was going to survive the whole hour and have no hands to cover my mouth! I had already worn a sweater to be prepared for the cold. I wanted some warm water but they didn’t look like they serve drinks. So what was I to do? I started thinking of grace all over again and kept repeating to myself “I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am made righteous by Jesus’ blood” over and over again. I saw myself seated at the right hand of God in Christ.

Ephesians 2:6,7
For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

By Jesus’ blood, God now sees me as His child. Even sickness, this cough, cannot dwell in heaven and heaven is in my heart now! It has got to go. Then I stopped coughing and started taking deep breaths. I really began to relax and enjoy the manicure as I experienced God’s love, joy and peace. When the manucurist lathered my hands and arms with some coarse lotion to scrub away the dead cells I still kept repeating “I thank you Lord that I am the righteousness of God in Christ.” over and over again. I was so thankful that He gave me this idea of pampering and I felt it was a holy spirit directed activity.

This morning, I asked God, "How do I make this cough go away?" and I sensed Him saying “Read your bible”. Right. I asked “Which part, Lord?” and He impressed on me Ephesians and James. “Again?” I said. It has always been Ephesians and James since the beginning of this journey. "What revelation do You want to tell me from these books?" I thought to myself. I humbled myself and read slowly this time from the New Living Translation version. I discovered again God’s love for me and that He has blessed me with ALL spiritual blessings. The most beautiful part I received was this:

Ephesians 4:4
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

See how much God loves us? Even before He made the world, He loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes! He knew we were going to fall, yet He still created this world, this universe for us and He made us. Not only that, His plan to make us part of His family was always there through Jesus Christ and it gave Him great pleasure. Wow!

It just shows that each time we think about grace all over again, it gives Father God great pleasure! And there’s a promise too (another great one) for those who believe.

Ephesians 3:19
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

When we experience God’s love through His son Jesus Christ, we are made complete in Him with His life and power that comes from God. No wonder I have been told that when we stop experiencing God’s love in our daily lives, we stop the flow of His life and power into our lives! How true! And how awesome is His power that flowed when I experienced God’s love while coughing in a nail parlour. God teaches us many things when we are down, when we rest to ponder upon His grace all over again.