Goood Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh start. A new day to rise with confidence in the Lord you serve. He has plans, anointing, and such purpose for you. He has plans to bring you out of destruction. He has plans for your deliverance long before your heart has made the turn.

Our God is a God of scandalous grace. I heard that phrase yesterday as I listened to Abby Johnson’s testimony. She is the woman who was the director of Planned Parenthood until she witnessed something in the operating room that changed her whole life. She is now an advocate for life. She shares that when she left her career, the pro life advocates whom she had treated poorly for 8 years opened their arms to her and never once asked for an apology, never made her prove that she was changed, they didn’t shame her or remind her of all the horrific things she did. They simply held her and walked with her into a new space she never envisioned herself to walk in. As she speaks she shares that the type of love, acceptance, and immediate forgiveness she was given by a group that was her “enemy” was an earthly expression of the the Lord’s scandalous grace. He forgives and immediately covers, protects, heals, and sets us back up to walk out purposes and destinies that would be impossible on our own, but with God, the impossible becomes possible.

The Lord is our refuge in times of trouble. He is the One we can flee to when we have crossed boundaries we were never meant to cross. He is ready arms open to offer a type of scandalous grace that turns heads and makes those who serve “religion” rather than Jesus squirm in their seats. He came and ate with notorious sinners and the religious leaders were appalled. He was not joining into their sin, nor was He condoning a lifestyle of sin.

He was modeling for us what He does. He meets us right where we are. He is right with us in the thick of our battles. He is not waiting outside of the locker room waiting for you to clean up your act first, and then you can talk to Him. He is there in all our junk and muck ready to breathe new life into the parts of our heart we thought perished long ago. He is ready to hold you, cleanse you, be your fortress that you can run to in your time of any need: sin related or not. He will shield you in His protective fortress.

And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Matthew 9:11‭-‬13

Friends, God is a God that is beyond our comprehension. It’s hard to completely grasp the love He has for each of us. We have been planned since the foundation of the earth. Formed and fashioned and known by God in our mother’s womb. We are here on purpose for a purpose. And if AT ANY time we find ourselves knocked off course, we serve a God ready to right our ways again regardless of how far off course we have traveled.

Dear Heavenly Father,

I pray that each of us flees to You first in our times of trouble. That You would be our refuge and fortress that we run to for safety, healing, forgiveness, or whatever we individually need. Thank You Lord for “scandalous grace” Grace that is deeper, wider, and more complete than our minds can fathom. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Blessings!

Vanessa Lynn