the grace of God, day 6

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: Romans 3:21-26

Reading for Reflection:

The Bible often portrays the grace of God as a thin stream of refreshing water that perseveres in a desert land.  The only way our parched souls can survive in a spiritually desolate society is to stay close to that stream.  That is why we come to worship, read our Bibles, serve others, and pray without ceasing throughout the day.  It’s all a way of drinking in the grace that keeps us spiritually alive.  The more time we spend by that stream, the more deeply our lives become rooted in God (Psalm 1).

     Those roots are pretty important because sometimes we get more grace than we want.  It doesn’t happen often, but when the storms come, the thin stream can suddenly turn into a raging river, washing away everything that is not firmly planted.  We never want to get too sentimental about grace.  While most days it is God’s gentle refreshment to our souls, some days it comes as a terrifying reminder that our lives are out of control.

     On the stormy days, we may wonder if it was such a good idea to live so close to the stream.  We may even wish God would just leave us alone.  Yet if the torrent sweeps away the things that are not spiritually rooted, then even that is a grace.  Remember, the point of God’s grace is not to be nice to us.  Grace does what we cannot do for ourselves.  It carries us home to God.  Sometimes on a gentle stream.  Sometimes on a raging river.  Yet always back to God. (Extravagant Mercy by M. Craig Barnes)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

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

T'was 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 that 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've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)