Living in Graceland

Jim and Terui Grace's beautiful worship space in Sendai, Japan

"Living in Graceland" is a term that talk show host Eric Hogue uses to describe Christian living. We live in a place of immeasurable grace that we have received from God. When Paul prayed about his thorn, God's answer was, "My grace is sufficient". For the afflicted, that can be a very confusing if not unsatisfying answer. And I'm not talking about your everyday "I can't believe that Starbuck's ran out of toffee bars" variety of suffering. These are trials that can shake the foundations of a person's faith. God did not save us from sin and death just to be broken by trials. He has, whether it feels like it or not, given us through his grace everything we need to get through our trials. Even though you don't know if you can go on, with God's help you will. How many times in your life did you ever think, "I can't make it..." but did? The reason is the second part of the aforementioned verse, "for my power is made perfect in weakness." God got you through it. Our strength is too weak to get us through our difficulties, but that's exactly where God's strength lies. And that's life in the land of grace.