Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. Always remember these commands I give you today. Teach them to your children, and talk about them when you sit at home and walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)

Ponder It.

• When have you felt imposed upon?
• On a scale from one to ten, how “imposed upon” do you usually feel?
• What situation have you had difficulty seeing God’s grace in or through?

Receive It. Grace doesn’t impose itself on you but works through every imposition, or what we define as imposition. Life is structured. Consider the structures in which you live. There are laws: local, state, and federal. There are regulations about driving, parking, banking, and shopping. Consider the rules and regulations, some which are likely unspoken, throughout your life, such as work, family, church, everyday routines, and more. You might rationalize that the structure around you is unnecessary or is inconvenient. You might easily accept some structure while vehemently fighting against other structure. God’s grace can surround every ounce of structure in your life, whether you appreciate it or not. We have a lot of choices in our lives. We might wish for more choices, but if we’re honest with ourselves, the fact that we can be discontent in the choices we have probably points to the fact that we have ample choices. Because of our discontentedness, we can misapply God’s grace into the structure of our lives. We can live out God’s grace in the areas we appreciate. We see how grace fits with structure we like, and we marry the two. But the structure we oppose is different. We categorize what we approve and what we don’t and withhold accepting and applying God’s grace. However, God’s grace is invasive. It can apply to any situation, not because of who we are or what we prefer but because of who God is and what he prefers. Are you living out God’s grace as fully as he wants throughout all the structured areas of your life?

Live It. As you go throughout your day today, consider all the structure around you, noticing what you might often overlook because it has simply been so ingrained into your daily life. What do you live by that you don’t notice much anymore? Ask God to reveal one area of structure in your life that he wants you to recognize and live out his grace. Pay attention.