Sufficient Grace

This morning I woke up feeling kind of annoyed, irritated, and grace-less.

First of all, trying to organise a party without knowing numbers (and hence how much food to get) because people don't RSVP or people cancel last minute is irritating. Especially when it's my birthday. Yes I am vain in that way. Secondly, JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) is 2 weeks away and knowing I still have lots to learn is irritating. And then waking up at 7:30am on a Saturday is irritating. I also wasn't feeling well, physically, which is irritating.

All these little things sound rather trivial, but with all this all rolled together on a warm and humid Saturday morning got me feeling grace-less.

But God, with all HIS abundant grace sent gentle reminders that made me realise a few things...

For starters, upon opening Firefox to check my email, these big headlines on Yahoo news front page -Miracle recovery of 'amazing Grace' - hit me right in the face. It reported of a miraculous recovery of a baby called Grace who survived and recovered after her life-support machine was turned off after her parents gave up hope of her ever recovering from "incurable" meningitus - story here. There is no other explanation other than God's sufficient grace to give this baby life, and bring her parents joy. That story appearing on Yahoo News, today, was no coincidence, I believe. The baby's name being Grace was no coincidence either, I believe. Thus first reminder - God's grace is sufficient.

Then after getting bored of studying, I decided to re-listen to a Ravi Zacharias talk on 'Why don't I feel my faith', and at one point he said how easily we let our emotions and feelings control us, when actually, we ought to kick those moods that get us down and less Christ-like. It's the language of me to myself, to train our emotions, to be the master of our feelings. Second reminder.

The party turned out to be better than I had expected. The people that I actually enjoy hanging out with came, and even though it wasn't a massive turnout, it was just big enough (about 10 people) for everyone to enjoy each other's good company, chatter & banter, good food and wine - just generally have a good time. Any bigger and it would've gotten a little chaotic, which would have been irritating.

So praise Him for his Grace, His perfect plan, His little reminders, and how He 'works for the good of those who love Him', even though I probably / definitely didn't deserve it today...(I'm not even sure if that verse really applies to my situation today)...

But at least now I'm going to bed NOT irritated, NOT annoyed, and NOT grace-less :)