Learning

“…and find out what pleases the Lord.” 

Ephesians 5:10

Today’s walk was full…full of quiet and peace. The very crackle of the bamboo under my feet seemed an intrusion. I took a copy of the “Labyrinth PRAYER Guide” with me, which I had not done in quite a while. The Scriptures practically jumped off the page.

It begins with Matthew 11:28, The Message Version, and in part it says to “Learn the unforced rhythms of Grace.” First, this is one of my favourite verses of Scripture.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

The other thing today, is that word “learn”. It seemed to echo in my head throughout this afternoon. To learn the Lord’s Grace, unforced ~ being accepted by me into the TRUE reality of each moment. This brought my prayer to ask that He ‘search my heart, O God’. As I looked down, just under some bamboo leaves there was something sticking out, so I reached to pick it up. It was one of the little wooden hearts from the cross, on the other side of the labyrinth!

He does that, ya know. He reaches down ~ searches and finds that which is lost ~ our hearts, buried under the stuff of this world and far from His cross and He faithfully brings it back into right step with His own heart. He leads us into the Center of His will for each moment. Thank you, Lord that You search for us, find us, lead and teach us ~ O, may we learn!

Learn….the echo of the day. Another word in that phrase is “Grace”.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Galatians 5:22 ~ NIV

Did you notice that Grace is not a fruit of the Spirit? It isn’t in that list! Grace is God working His will out in us, thru us. Grace is a Fruit of HIS Presence and Peace. A part of our learning Grace is to look for Him in all things, to “find out what pleases the Lord.” We cannot “be” Grace, or become Grace-ful. We are only Grace-filled….unforced, given over and offered UP and that is what changes our earthbound hearts.

Later, when I was typing this up, it was really sweet to see how these Scriptures from Matthew and Ephesians worked together in a paraphrasing sort of way ~

And find out what pleases the Lord by learning the unforced rhythms of GRACE….