Lift the Veil

I've been thinking a lot lately how our relationship with God is directly coorelated with our relationships with others. For example, if we feel as though God is angry with us or very disappointed we may be in angry with others and in turn believe that they are angry with us, because at the core, we don't believe that God is really good all the time and we believe that there are times when He is angry or disappointed. We may not say it with exact words of the world around us ("God is going to strike me with lightning"), but we live as though He really isn't for us. Psalm 56:9 says, "My enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I know that God is for me." Eve in the garden believed that God was witholding something from her, so she rebelled and did things her own way. She didn't believe that God had her and Adam's best interest at heart.
If we could lift the veil and see into the spiritual realm, we would see a war going on between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God being played out in our every day lives when relating with others, in mundane tasks and habits, etc. The sinful human flesh is waring against the spirit every day. Just the other day I woke up and this independence came over me and I stopped and thought, "How could I ever think that one day I could wake up and not need God?" Yet sometimes we live our lives like He isn't there and that surely this time He will leave us and that He truely doesn't have our best interest in mind or things would have never turned out this way. Like one day we will wake up and He won't be there for us. Yet we look back and instead of seeing only the "hell," we realize that He truely has always been there and has never left us alone to fend for ourselves. Great fear yet great love. Great ashes yet great beauty. Great fire yet great cleansing and purifying. Great attacks yet great vengeance of the Lord. Great war yet great victory and triumph through KING JESUS. NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING can seperate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:31-39) And there is no place that we can go that His presence is not there (Psalm 139:7-12).
How great is His vengeance, His holy anger, His unfailing love and mercy, His overwhelming grace and beauty, His forgiveness, the wonderful conviction of the Holy Spirit and kindness that leads us to repentance. When we come boldy before His throne of grace and say "Create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit in me," we see a picture of His overwhelming love for us and all arguements are dropped as we stand at the foot of the cross, unashamed and in the fear of Lord. He loves, He convicts, He forgives and He wins over and over and over again. Thank God we don't get what we deserve. There's a song by a lady named Kim Walker and part of the words to the song say, "If grace were a notion, we'd all be sinking," and she chuckles after she sings that part. =)
I have just started a life group called Ragamuffin Gospel that my friends Kristin and Kelly are heading up and we are going to be talking a lot about the grace of God in the next coming weeks, so maybe I will put some nuggets from there on here.
God, let us go from glory to glory with You (II Corinthians 3:18). And only through Your love and grace can we be changed.