Elaine is the proverbial gal next door, down to earth, but heavenly minded. She is married to her best friend, Jonathan, and they live in rural Pennsylvania.
First and foremost, Elaine rests in and enjoys her position as a daughter of the Most High God! She is also a prophetic voice, servant-leader, and teacher in the Body of Christ and her heart is to see people understand their identity in Christ and to mature as the sons and daughters of God.
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Embrace His Grace – A Word by Elaine Rice
Elaine Rice
Email: [email protected]
Recently experiencing the above average temperatures in rural Pennsylvania reminded me of when we lived in Georgia where the summer daytime temps had you running for an air-conditioned room.
My husband worked a civilian job as a nurse practitioner after spending 20 years in the U.S. Army. His office mate was a born and raised southern belle and was accustomed to the heat. When Jonathan got to complaining about the heat she’d tell him to “embrace the heat.” In other words, you can’t change it so welcome it and enjoy it!
As I began to ponder this in a spiritual sense, I could see the correlation to our “spiritual heat” or those trials and temptations that we all get to experience. In fact, James tells us to “Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.” (James 1:2 AMPC)
Being joyous is generally not the natural reaction to a trial or temptation! But James is basically telling us to “embrace the heat” of a trial or temptation with joy! Why? What does this accomplish? James gives us the answer in the following two verses:
Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing. (James 1:3-4 AMPC)
The Apostle Paul learned to “embrace the heat,” but he also learned how to embrace God’s grace! We see this in his letter to the Corinthians:
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10 NKJV)
Many in the Body of Christ have been experiencing great trials. Whether it’s financial, waiting for the manifestation of a healing, contending for prophetic words to come to pass, believing for the salvation of loved ones, unity in your marriage, grieving the loss of a loved one – whatever you are facing, remember that you are never alone! Our God is faithful and He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us
We all must learn to embrace His grace as we embrace the heat of trials and temptations as we walk through our journey in Christ.
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