May you be daily amazed by the grace and love with which Jesus loves you.
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When I was growing up, there was, at some point, a video of one of Ron Kenoly’s concerts that my siblings and I watched over and over again. In that video, Ron Kenoly related how, as a boy, he would follow his mother to a church where the hymn, Amazing Grace, was regularly sung and that every time the congregation sang the line that says, “how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,” he would turn to his mum, asking, “mum, what’s a wretch? Are you a wretch, mun?” And the mum would retort, saying, “Just shut up and sing.”
May I ask you that same question. Are you a wretch that was saved? Are you a wretch that requires God’s mercies every day of your life? John Newton knew himself to be a wretch when he wrote that hymn,
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Dear Christian pilgrim, I know who a wretch is because I am one and that is why, like John Newton, I fully appreciate how amazing indeed is the grace that found me and saved me; the grace that finds me and saves me every day.
Who else ever called himself a wretch? The man through whom God would speak, prophet Isaiah in chapter 6: “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Who else called himself a wretch? Paul in Romans 7: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Who else? David in Psalm 34: “This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.”
Who else? That tax collector who stood at a distance. Who would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said: ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
What is the point of this? It is this: if, in the presence of God, you often feel like a wretch and an unworthy person, then, you are in good company. And if that feeling of wretchedness and unworthiness makes you wholly dependent on the grace of Jesus Christ, then you are in line to receive the favours of God. Yes, If you are always hoping and trusting in the grace of Jesus Christ in order to be acceptable before God, you are in the company of those who have been forgiven, who have been blessed and who have been found worthy of God’s use.
But if you are no longer daily amazed by the grace of Jesus Christ that saved you and saves you, then examine yourself whether you are still in the faith and take heed lest you fall.
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, please keep us near the cross of Jesus Christ, never to forget the huge sacrifice of our Lord on the Cross of Calvary. Please keep front and centre of hearts the vision of Your holiness, never to forget how unworthy of You we are, so much so that, every new day, every time we come before You in prayer, we come in gratitude, we come in humility, we come amazed by the grace and love with which you love us. In Jesus name, Amen.
Pilgrim’s Joy Devotional, a collection of meditations inspired by Christian hymns, is a production of GospelBellsRadio.com, a community of believers learning together, praying together, and engaging the culture with the mind of Christ.
This episode was written and read by Olufemi Oguntokun. Please leave us comments in the box below.
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