What does it mean when the Bible says “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you” in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, the beginning of verse 8. What does it look like in a person’s life to have “all grace abound” from God? Where in your life have you seen lots and lots of grace? What did that look like?
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
2 Cor. 9:8
Well, a few years ago at Thanksgiving I had an experience that was an “all grace abound” experience. I know that this verse in the Bible is talking about money because it is in the context of financial giving, but my Thanksgiving wasn’t really about money. But grace abounded. I’d love to share it with you and then maybe we both would have a greater understanding of what grace, lots of it, looks like in our lives.
Our Alaska kids came down to visit us for Thanksgiving that year. They stayed for two and a half weeks. They had three children who were ages 10, 7, and almost 5. We had prayed and prayed about this visit because up in their area of Alaska there were many COVID19 cases which threatened the plan that they’d be able to stay healthy and fly down to Washington state. But they did get here, thank you Lord!
I guess I expected a perfect visit because we hadn’t seen them in our home for three years and I had so much joy for them to be ‘home’ with me. My family was to be together for Thanksgiving—a huge joy to a mom/grandma’s heart. All three families were coming and all twelve grandchildren together! I was planning a whole family picture that I could send out as a Christmas card or on my Christmas letter. What joy!
Well, the first difficult thing that happened was that one of the two local families came down sick. Yes, it was COVID19. There went the opportunity for the whole family to be together for Thanksgiving. We traced the COVID19 and realized my husband had been at their house during the incubation time. Would this mean no Thanksgiving? But thankfully the Alaska family had not been exposed because they were out of town for those couple of days visiting other relatives. But would this mean they would not come back to our house—the end of their visit?
Then my husband got a high fever. That seemed to settle it—no Thanksgiving. But I prayed over him and got others to pray. Every time I laid hand on his head and prayed over him, the fever went down a few tenths of degrees. This shouldn’t happen because fevers usually grow stronger as the day turns to evening. So I kept praying and God healed him and that fever went down and away! No repercussions in his body’s energy either! Whatever it was–it was gone! Praise the Lord!
Well, the next tricky thing was the atmosphere of grief that pervaded our home. The Alaska family who were staying with us had lost a baby down here in Vancouver years ago and never been back to where they had spread the ashes up Silver Star mountain. The mama anticipated the hike and emotional trauma of going back there. She oozed sadness, sorrow and grief. I could feel it and others could too. There was a blanket of melancholy over us all.
Then we had rain–a deluge of rain. It rained so much that all outdoor plans with the grandchildren had to be cancelled. Other friends our Alaska family wanted to see were sick and couldn’t be seen. Social plans were cancelled. Furthermore we realized that my son and his sister probably wouldn’t see each other because of the sister’s family’s sickness (it had been three years since they had been together). We did do a small Thanksgiving with just the two healthy families but one of our group was in a terrible mood and decided everyone else should experience their pain!! And so on it went—so many disappointing things.
But the strangest thing was that those difficult things did not trash our fellowship with the parents and grandchildren. Logically speaking it should have been a terrible visit. But even through it all we loved each other, served each other, did projects together, played games together and there was peace, joy, gratefulness and even mini-miracles! It was like we were in a protection bubble that nothing negative could take away our peace. It was an example of God’s grace abounding making something that should have been negative into a gift of love.
So at the end of the two and half weeks, it was amazing that we, each one, said “It was a good visit!” This was all due to God’s grace abounding in this situation. He turned what should be bad into what felt like a blessing. And Holy Spirit kept putting that verse into my mind: “God is able to make all grace abound toward you.”
Where have you seen God’s grace abounding in your life? Tell me about it at: helpwithmydreams@gmail.com
How do you get God’s grace abounding in your life?
Ask for it!
If you connect with this blog episode, and desire a freedom in the area of finances, we encourage you to go to Amazon and purchase our book with personal activations and engagements to help you heal and deal with these issues. Financial Healing: A Spiritual Journey by Richard and Jackie Nalos is available in soft cover or Kindle on Amazon.
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