AMAZING GRACE
09th Aug 2017
We are all familiar with the John Newton hymn, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!” which speaks of “saving grace” which is wonderful. We can think back to the time when we received forgiveness, were saved from a lost eternity and welcomed into the family of God. However, we need to draw from God’s grace every day.
When Paul was under great pressure and speaks about his “thorn”, which I believe was persecution and opposition, not illness, God spoke to him and said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” The reason that I do not agree with the “Paul’s thorn illness” thing is because of what he says later, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
Amazing grace is available in times of weakness and hardships, etc., and we need to reach out and receive all the resources we need in the challenges of life. Sometimes we are so independent in our thinking that we want to soldier on when God is there wanting to meet our needs.
Not only that, in Hebrews we read about Jesus as our great high priest who is able to sympathise with us in all our weaknesses and temptations, and then we are encouraged to, “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in out time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)
It is all to easy to be have been “saved by grace”, but now are trying to cope with the demands of every day life in our own human strength.
Stop trying to make it on your own, and reach out for some of that “amazing grace” which is freely and bountifully available for you.
by Charles Sibthorpe
