Only By His Grace

My family reunion was blessed. My three sisters and brother and I have chosen to be adults in attitude as well as age. As my brother observed, we have dealt with the issues between us as children and decided to forgive what is from the past and live as friends as well as siblings. Our in-laws are also mature enough to choose to love and forgive whatever has gone before. Other than Mother’s funeral, we hadn’t all been together for five years. It was a wonderful time together, eating, playing, laughing, loving. We decided to aim for a three-year gap next time as it had been too long.

I made very bad choices in eating two days in a row. I failed to recognize the strength of temptation in advance. Two of my sisters baked Mother’s recipes and I indulged in gluten-filled treats. In the past, it took a couple of weeks of eating gluten to affect me. I suspect that because of my diligence in living gluten-free for several years, my body now reacts much more quickly. The symptoms began less than 48 hours after the first ingestion and blossomed with painful consequences. With restoration of my gluten-free diet and adding extra collagen-enriched bone broth, my symptoms are on the wane and full healing will be mine because of God’s goodness.

Guilt and remorse could overtake my soul; I know better than to eat gluten. This episode confirms my diagnosis of celiac disease and I choose to exercise self control again. But a sermon I heard about grace this week encourages me to seek help in new ways and more quickly than I might normally. Paul wrote in Romans 5 and 6 that despite his desire to please God, he found himself doing what he did not want to do. He said it was by grace through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that would save him from the desires of his flesh. I have realized that I did not plan for a way of escape or ask for one in the midst of the attack of fleshly desire. Critical to my healthy choices is having the best foods available. I do it at home by not having anything around that I should not eat that would tempt me. Planning to provide the same options away from home is required to fight fleshly desires and win. I did not ask for leading about my grocery store run during my trip; I knew of the baking plans but didn’t ask God if I needed to have alternatives. His faithfulness would have enabled me to be better prepared. By His grace, I won’t fail to ask again.

I know that asking for help is absolutely necessary to a healthy life in body, soul, and spirit. We all make bad choices when our minds are set on our fleshly desires. But through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we can set our minds on the good plans our Father has made for us and cooperate with Him instead of fighting what is best for us. God will be faithful because of Jesus through the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead us to what is best.

Romans 7:24-25A What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.