Grace & Peace

I have recently started closing my emails with "Grace & Peace". They are a couple of the most important words of our faith. It is what we live by. It is what I wish for all of you.
Life with God is so much more than what we deserve or don't, so much more than what we get or can pull off. Life with God is what we have available to open ourselves to simply because of who God is and what He can do and how much He loves us. We serve a God who desires good for us. "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you"(Psalm 16:2). He planned for it and paid for it in Jesus. He looks at us through the eyes of grace. Grace is what our lives are made of and held together by. … Grace.
Most of us walk with a limp even though we have begun to walk with God. There are things about us we don't like. We wish we could do what we can't and be who we aren't. Life occasionally beats us up. The wholeness and put-togetherness we long for seems like a very distant dream. The Hebrew people wished each other Shalom, the wholeness of God which our idea of peace is only a small part. The New Testament teaches us that Jesus rules us by peace. Life can only seem good when I know I'm alright. I know I'm alright when I yield myself so to God that I know His peace, I sense His rule and it is all … peace.
Grace and peace. It will be my salutation until the Lord leads me to another.
Grace & peace to you now and always, my friends.