Free Choose Love by Stormie Omartian

I pray.

     
    Words of Love
    The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
    H EBREWS 4:12
    As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
    I SAIAH 55:10-11
    Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the L ORD , and in His law he meditates day and night.
    P SALM 1:1-2
    This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
    J OSHUA 1:8
    The statutes of the L ORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the L ORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
    P SALM 19:8

5
    Accept God’s Grace and Mercy

    M any people don’t fully receive God’s love because they believe He is angry with them. They don’t understand His grace and mercy and the extent of His complete forgiveness.
    Before I learned how to receive God’s love, I didn’t think He was angry at me. I thought He didn’t care enough about me to even be angry. I knew I had done many wrong things I wasn’t proud of, and I could never go back and change all of that. I felt distant from God even though I tried everything I could to find a way to somehow connect with Him.
    The various occult practices and Eastern religions I went into while searching for God held the promise of getting close to a god. At least, that’s what I had heard and read, but they never came through. The spiritual realm I was searching in became more and more frightening as time went on. It proved to be anything but comforting. In fact, it was quite the opposite. With each new experiment into this spiritual world, I was left feeling more distant from a god than ever and increasingly disappointed, hopeless, and fearful.
    It wasn’t until I came to know the love of the one true God through receiving His unfathomable gift—Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself—that I began to understand how God not only knew who Iwas , but He also cared about who I would become . He loved me and would never leave me to fend for myself as I had always done in the past. I had been searching for the smallest crumbs under God’s table, and He had prepared a magnificent feast for me in His royal banquet hall.
    Only then did I begin to comprehend God’s amazing grace and mercy, and I was overwhelmed by the love of God igniting both.
    Understanding God’s Grace
    Grace is divine assistance that is undeserved, given to us so that we can be restored to right relationship with God. It’s a reprieve or exemption from having to pay the price for anything we’ve done that is not according to God’s ways. It’s a gift to us because Jesus already paid that price and we have received Him by faith (Romans 3:24).
    By the grace of God we are saved from the consequences of choosing our own ways over God’s. This is no small matter because it is not something we can do on our own (Ephesians 2:8). And it is not about conjuring up anything with positive thinking. I am not saying that happy, hopeful thoughts accomplish nothing. They are good, but you can only go so far with them. Our good thoughts don’t save us from the eternal consequences of our actions. They don’t get us into a right and close relationship with God. They don’t bring us into eternity in God’s presence. They can’t.
    We are not saved by doing everything perfectly. We