Saturday, September 10, 2016

Devotion

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.

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved;
how precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come;
'tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me;
his word my hope secures;
he will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years,
bright shining as the sun,
we've no less days to sing God's praise
than when we'd first begun.

I was lost, but now am found. Really, that's how I felt at one point in my life! Although decades have passed since those days, I still recall the feeling. Given how often people request that "Amazing Grace" be sung at funerals, it is clear that many others feel a connection to that same feeling of being lost and then found by God. How much of a difference does it make to you that the gospel of Jesus Christ includes the powerful image of a God who notices and cares and bothers to search for the lost one? And what of this marvelous image of our God who won't give up on the search, and when the lost is found, rejoices! And there's still more—it isn't just that I have been found, but that this God who searched for me also searches for all who are lost.