Lean Into Grace and Experience God's Healing and Freedom

What do you do when your life lacks the healing, freedom, and joy you long for—when you feel stuck and don’t know where to turn? In these moments, God invites us to lean into grace as he works in our lives to accomplish what we cannot do in our human strength.

I have exciting news to share with you today! After years of hard work, intensive editing, and much prayer, I’d like to introduce you to my new book, Lean Into Grace: Let God’s Grace Heal Your Heart, Refresh Your Soul, and Set You Free.

Here’s a quick description of what you’ll find within the pages of this raw and vulnerable new book:

Lean Into Grace

Most of us have been taught that trying harder is the key to transformation and healing. Meanwhile, we’re frustrated because willpower has failed us in many realms of our lives.

We feel trapped by destructive habits like emotional eating and snapping at our loved ones, and we wonder if we’ll ever find freedom. We wonder why we can’t find victory over fear, worry, insecurity, and shame.

In the meantime, God has an invitation for each of his children. He invites us to stop relying on willpower, letting him do the work of setting us free. He wants to help us overcome our unhealthy habits, free us from shame, restore our relationships, and redeem life’s most painful rejections. God is waiting to lead us into lives with less stress and anxiety—and greater peace and joy.

Our role is to position ourselves to receive God’s grace. When God imparts his grace, he works in our lives to accomplish what we cannot do in our own strength.

Let God’s Grace Transform Your Life

Lean Into Grace explores 16 common areas in which many believers feel stuck in life, including the following:

Unhealthy habits
Dysfunctional relationships
Debilitating insecurity
Overwhelming stress
Lingering Grief
Paralyzing Fear
Spiritual Slumps
Self-Critical Thought Patterns

Explore Practical Ways to Experience God’s Grace and Find Freedom in Christ

We don’t have to stay stuck in life. We can find freedom in Christ. He wants to heal us and set us free.

Lean Into Grace will help you:

Break bad habits by turning to Jesus in the middle of your indulgent moments
Overcome fear and worry by turning Satan’s attacks against him
Rise above insecurity by shifting your focus
Return to peace in your most stressful moments
Connect with God in ways that refresh your soul
Process your pain with Jesus instead of avoiding or burying your emotions

Lean Into Grace and Let God Set You Free

Multitudes of believers desperately need God to help us accomplish what we’ve been unable to do for ourselves. Lean Into Grace is an invitation to set aside self-effort, run to the Lord, and let him do the work of setting us free. He is able to break every chain and transform our lives beyond our wildest dreams.

If this sounds like a journey you would like to take, I invite you to read the introduction of Lean Into Grace for free.

Introduction for Lean Into Grace

A million stars glance down from the inky canopy overhead, and I stand at the window feeling empty inside. Today was a long day spent racing to meet writing deadlines, running errands, and keeping up with the kids.

I know what I should do to fill the emptiness. I should go somewhere quiet and spend time with God, read a book, or snuggle up with the little ones. Instead, I succumb to temptation and begin searching the cupboards for something chocolate. After coming up empty in the kitchen, I head to the laundry room where my eye catches the box of candy on the top shelf. I buy this candy with the intention of using it for Easter egg hunts and sharing it with the kids on special occasions. Sadly, it has also become my secret source of escape and comfort.

Opening the box, I remove the foil wrapper from a peanut butter-filled Easter bunny and devour it. The bunny is delicious, and I indulge in another. And then another. One at a time, I unwrap the chocolate bunnies and shove them into my mouth like an addict.

On one level, I feel numb, and feeling numb feels good. On another level, I feel disgusting. I hate that I keep failing when it comes to establishing a healthy relationship with food. I fear I’ll never find freedom from this addictive cycle. I’ve been relying on willpower to help me change my unhealthy eating habits for decades. Sadly, willpower consistently fails me. I wonder if I’ll be stuck forever.

Redefining Grace

Like me, perhaps you’ve been relying on self-effort and willpower for transformation in some area of your life. Maybe you’re trying to stop yelling at your kids, heal your marriage, or cultivate a thriving relationship with God. Perhaps you’ve been trying to lose weight for as long as you can remember, and you’re frustrated by your repeated failures to stick with any of the diet plans you’ve tried. Despite your best efforts, nothing seems to work. You feel stuck. Every failure feels like one more piece of evidence that you’ll never step into the freedom and victory you long for.

Maybe you’ve heard that God’s grace is all you need, but you’re not sure how God’s grace could transform the secret sins, unhealthy habits, and behavior patterns you can’t seem to change.

In his book, Renovated, Dr. Jim Wilder redefines grace as, “God acting in our lives to accomplish what we cannot accomplish by our own abilities.”¹

The first time I read these words, Dr. Wilder’s definition of grace spoke to the part of me that was tired of failing and wondering why willpower rarely produces lasting change in my life. I realized that God was inviting me to lean into grace, letting him accomplish what I had been unable to accomplish in my own strength. God was waiting to heal my relationship with food, help me overcome my greatest insecurities, infuse my relationships with joy, and set me free from every stuck place in my life.

Your Invitation to Lean Into Grace

Our culture has taught us that the secret to success is mustering more willpower and self-effort. Let’s be clear: There’s nothing wrong with trying hard. Colossians 3:23 tells us to put our whole hearts into everything we do. However, we need to make a distinction. Pouring our whole hearts into God’s assignments—and leaving the outcomes in his hands—is very different from relying on self-effort alone to bring the change we want to see in our lives.

This book is my story of learning to lay down self-effort, lean into God’s grace, and create more space for him to work in my life. Additionally, these pages are your invitation to stop striving in self-effort and let God do what you’ve been unable to do for yourself. We will create space to let God set us free from fear, worry, stress, shame, besetting sins, and more.

Before we begin our journey together, return with me to the laundry room where I’m stuffing my face with expired Easter candy.

God’s Grace Is Sufficient

Within just a few short minutes, I’ve lost track of how many chocolate bunnies I’ve eaten. Too many. I feel like the Apostle Paul, who wrote, “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want” (Romans 7:19).

The last thing I want to do at this moment is turn toward Jesus. I’m not even sure I want to stop eating this chocolate. However, in an act of desperation, I pray these words: “Jesus, I’m stuck. I need you to work in my life and do something I cannot do for myself. I need you to heal my relationship with food and set me free from this awful cycle.”

Nothing particularly startling happens. Instead, a familiar truth comes to mind: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

As I consider the words, I sense God inviting me to exchange self-effort for surrender. I recognize that no matter how hard I try to honor God, I’ll still make mistakes. However, God isn’t asking me to be perfect; instead, he wants me to experience his chain-breaking power as he works in my weakness.

Moving Toward the Freedom We Crave

As I hold the box of chocolate on my lap, part of me wants to eat one more bunny. Nevertheless, compelled by a force I cannot explain, I shove the candy back inside the box, put the box on the shelf, and return to the living room to join my family.

In some ways, tonight was another failure in my relationship with food. In another way—a deeper way—it was one small step toward the freedom I crave. I’ll tell you more about this journey later in our time together.

God is inviting you to lean into his grace, allowing him to set you free as well. Let’s take our first small step into grace together.

Buy Lean Into Grace Here today

To keep reading, find Lean Into Grace for free on the Kindle Unlimited program or for 12.99 in print right here today. May you experience God like never before!