LBW #448, "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound"
Devotion
T’was grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved (v. 2)
Wednesday’s lesson announced, “You have been freed from sin and enslaved to God.” I appreciate Paul’s consideration for my “natural limitations,” but a freedom that enslaves? Can we really call this freedom? Some might invoke the cliché, “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
I think they might be onto something. Life in a frying pan means dinner’s almost ready, and you’re it. Sin is enslavement masquerading as freedom.
The refiner’s fire is hot, but it does not consume. Through faith active in love – at home and work, in our communities and congregations – we are conformed to Christ.
The grace that speaks these truths of a freedom that wasn’t free and of an enslavement that truly is brings both fear and relief.
Prayer
Lord, you created me and all that exists. I am bound to thank, praise, serve, and obey you. Free me from the illusion of self-mastery. Amen.