It’s By Grace: Tidal Wave of Love (part 1 of 2)

In a world where the word lavish means: money, multiple sex partners, drugs, materialism, corporate jobs to match corporate jets to match corporate greed, CEO compensations, over-sized homes, over-sized contracts, million dollar vacations and weddings to match, it is hard to comprehend lavish as being anything other than what we have gained dishonestly or by corruptible scruples. Beloved, this was taken from a devotional I read entitled, “God’s Lavish Love” from Max Lucado’s: “Wild Grace” written specifically for teenagers. I present an opportunity to you that is presented to me. This opportunity is getting to know and ultimately embracing the very heart of God. With that said, I now invite you into my HEART...


Lavish love isn’t something you inherit, or stumble upon. Lavish love is something that cannot be intellectualized, quantified or purchased. You don’t work your way up a proverbial ladder to achieve lavish love, and lavish love isn’t something you flash around saying look at me! Lavish love is something that must be embraced and experienced— Lavish love came through Jesus Christ.

Max Lucado presents God’s grace to us and the teenager who is in need of knowing, experiencing, being transformed by and sharing it, in a personal and intimate way. Read below and get a sneak peek at God’s Tidal Wave of Love that is coming at us all!

• Isn’t this how God works? God starts the process. He doesn’t just love; He lavishes us with love (1 John 3:1). 
• He doesn’t dole out wisdom; He “gives generously to all without finding fault” (James 1:5). 
• He is rich in “kindness, tolerance and patience” (Romans 2:4). 
• His grace is “exceedingly abundant” (1 Timothy 1:14) and “indescribable” (2 Corinthians 9:14–15).

When God gives, He dances for joy. He loves to give.

God doesn’t just love; He lavishes us with love.

God dispenses His goodness not with an eyedropper but a fire hydrant. Your heart is a Dixie cup, and His grace is the Mediterranean Sea. You simply can’t contain it all. So let it bubble over. Spill out. Pour forth. And enjoy the flood.

Have you received God’s lavish love? Have you received His grace? Pause and thank Him now for the limitless goodness that cannot be contained and ask Him to show you how to extend that relentless love to others.

Bestselling author Max Lucado explains that if teens let God’s grace change them, shape them, and strengthen them, their lives will never be the same. Today’s teens are being shaped by the pressures and disappointments of the world. But Max Lucado encourages them to take a close look at what can shape their hearts and their futures from the inside out—God’s grace. 

As Max explains, “God’s grace has a drenching about it. A wildness about it. A whitewater, riptide, turn-you-upside-downness about it. Grace comes after you.” Wild Grace gives teens an understanding of how grace can change their lives in powerful ways, even when those lives are messed up, off track, or in trouble. Each chapter describes another miracle that happens when we allow God’s grace to work on us and through us:

“Grace is God’s decision to change everything. Good-bye, earthly labels. Stupid. Unpopular. Ugly. Failure. No longer. You aren’t who they say you are. You are who He says you are. Spiritually alive. Connected to God. Amazing.”

For the teenager, the parent or the individual who wants to experience God’s grace and you are an avid reader and even if you aren’t an avid reader, you can find Max Lucado’s Wild Grace here (familychristian.com) or if you read on the go and prefer a kindle edition click here (amazon.com). I pray, That part 1 of “It’s By Grace: Tidal Wave of Love” will encourage you, strengthen you and if your heads are hanging low from heartache and pain, it will lift you up to experience God’s grace. As always... YOU ARE LOVED.