My mother frequently shared a story with us kids from when she was a student at Holmes Bible College in Greenville, South Carolina. One of her friends was madly in love with another student named Grace. Every day he would pray “Lord, give me Grace!” We chuckled over this story and never tired of hearing it. I asked my mother if they ever married and she said ”Oh yes, the Lord gave him Grace.”

I am keenly aware that, if not for the grace of God operating in our lives, we would be doomed to a life of frustration. We saw this in action just last week. John has been driving our new pickup since the Trooper, being an old vehicle, is having problems again. My husband repeatedly contacted the Isuzu dealer in Port-au-Prince to send us the plates so that we would not get stopped by a policeman – to no avail. Sure enough, John was stopped and the pickup was impounded. Since John was leaving yesterday to join us here in Portland, we desperately needed the plates sent from Port-au-Prince on the plane to Cap-Haitian by Saturday in time for him to relinquish them to the police department before leaving the country. It was already Friday. All of us were imploring the Lord to move on the dealership to get those plates to John so that our pickup wouldn’t sit in the lot for over a week racking up a huge bill. Our lawyer asked the police that if the Isuzu company would send pictures of the plates to them, would they allow John to take the pickup home? The policeman in charge replied, ”Yes.” After going to great lengths to get Isuzu to send the pictures, the policeman changed his mind. Like my mother’s friend, we were praying ”God give us Grace!” Fortunately, the plates came right in the nick of time and we finally exhaled.

Grace is that extra-special oomph one needs to attain something through prayer they would not normally receive otherwise. I don’t know how many times we’ve experienced it on the mission field when the Lord bore us up on angel’s wings.

Do you need grace today? I pray the Lord will show Himself strong in your behalf and give you that special oomph that you need from Him. I’d even love to hear about it when He does!

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: 2 Corinthians 9:8 KJV