We break through the problems and pressures faced daily, with our foot on the accelerator of divine love that leaves us free of anxiety, even before we deserve a break. In a grace mindset, God mends our past, mindfulness delights our present, & hope offers a future worth living. In works mindset we regret our past, attempt to fix our present, and often fear our future. Grace is as real for me as it is unconditional, divine and loving to any who embrace its wonder.
The brain kicks in with grace as an adrenaline of sorts that gets us going again after we slip or fail. Whenever we embrace God’s grace through faith we create a neural pathway along which unconditional love flows to us, within us and through us.
Visualize a miracle to snap back our hearts when we feel criticized. Imagine reassurance when we feel judged, or an inner whisper to prevent us from judging or harming others. Or picture tangible support to help repair a broken relationship. Even when stress blurs our faith and leaves us slogging alone through the mire, faith holds enchanted superpowers.
Faith is not about pressuring friends or family to believe exactly what we believe. To embrace grace when stressors hit, is often to access its tangible encouragement mentally. Think of grace as a free, agape gift from God! It literally defaults us into unconditional love that carries courage to speak gently to others as if they too were wounded, especially when conflict arises. How so?
No question, our need for God’s favor should challenge faith-based organizations to teach grace as living, doable and sufficient whenever we feel weak. (2 Corinthians 12: 8 – 9) Faith leaps and dances with delight beyond endless sermons on grace though. It often takes A.W. Tozer’s kind of mental makeover to take on grace’s neural pathway into a life with less stress. In Tozer’s words, “The cross is a lightning rod of grace that short-circuits God’s wrath to Christ so that only the light of His love remains for believers.”
When I step on the accelerator of my faith, I ride belief into the light of God’s love for all.
Faith lands us in the pool of grace, where we become living trophies of God’s all-consuming favor. Lucky for us, it’s based on divine goodness and not dependent on human failure. It’s not dependent on another person’s push or persuasion either. Faith is less about fairness and more about undeserved favor. So why is this free and life-changing gift of grace such a rare ingredient in our belief? What activates faith?
Is it possible that our sense of justice makes us miss refreshing ripples of unconditional love that comes when we deserve love least? We may feel like we tend to live in the gap between sermons on divine favor and stressors that weaken and defeat us without much warning. Brains can cultivate access to grace that improves lives and amps up hope. The more we embrace God’s grace, the more neural pathways we build for the brain to live that gift of grace.
Few disagree that grace at its core means unmerited favor, based on God’s perfection rather than on our flaws. Far fewer seem able to access grace.
I’ve found finer responses to a meaningful life, through access to grace, which manifests as serotonin, the brain’s well-being chemical. Who’d have imagined the human brain tangibly expresses God’s grace in a fulfilled life?
Who’d have guessed that divine grace and human brainpower work together in high-performance minds like we see in Gandhi or Mother Teresa, or Martin Luther King? Have you seen grace and serotonin work together to offer a life overflowing with more love and less stress?
What would help us to access more of God’s amazing grace as our lived experience?
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