Tim Hughes song "When tears fall" have the wonderful lines
"When hope is lost. I'll call you Saviour,
When pain surrounds, I'll call you healer"
The book of Lamentations and Psalms offers us all the words of hope and faith building techniques to help us in our journey. Many of the psalmists practised the discipline of recalling God' faithfulness as a stepping stone towards worship and hope. Psalm 13 offers us these words
"How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?"
beginning with a desperate cry the psalmist continues to statements of trust in God
"But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me"
We have from the psalmist a wonderful truth that remembering releases rejoicing. When we cannot perceive God amidst the wilderness and pain, as clouds of uncertainty close in the way forward is to remind ourselves of what we know to be true and dependable - that is the grace of God.
5 comments:
What do you see as the grace of God? People often say 'there but for the grace of God...' but doesn't that mean that God chooses who He blesses.
Why would someone get off pain or abuse by the grace of God and someone else suffer??
I think in this context, Grace means God's overwhelming love for us all, each and everyone, unfailing, faithful, no matter what - indeed Grace does mean (I believe) unconditional love so yes, that means God loves us all, no matter what - for the good we do and the bad, his unconditional love is always there. To me, that is what makes it so overwhelming because no matter what I do or have done, he still loves me. There is a lovely song:
"The grace of God upon my life is not dependent upon me, on what I have done or deserve. It goes on to talk about God's mercy and that his love is unending, unfailing, unlimited and unmerited - this gives me a lot of peace to know that God loves me for who I am rather than what I have done or what I believe I deserve or perhaps don't deserve.
Quite deep for a Sunday evening but there you go!
I am not sure I believe in the comment "there but for the grace of God" it certainly is not biblical - at least I could not find the comment in any of my commentaries. God seeks to bless us all - all are open to receive the blessing and grace of God.
I have no idea why someone would cause pain or abuse using the phrace "by the grace of God" then allowing another to suffer?? The God who I worship despairs at the pain we cause others - he is not immune from that.
Grace is undeserved love as Jayne mentions
I'm learning about grace as it is a word that I call one of the holy and clean God words............not one that I associate with a scally like me!!
But the song 'Amazing Grace' has set me free from some of the negative language...or what people have made negative....
especially the line 'that saved a wretch/scally like me'..........
Grace doesn't take away our choice in a situation...?
God's grace is for everyone...?
Grace can change situations and people?
I firmly believe God's grace is for everyone. God's grace - Gods' overflowing love, generosity, forgiveness and welcome. Of course, we can choose to ignore it - we would be automatons if we were forced to acknowledge the love of God in our lives.
But God's grace follows everyone - even at those points when we think God is miles away or neglecting us. The love of God for us is never turned off - it is impossible to stop.
And when we come to recognise it and to honour the presence of God and God's grace in our lives, we begin to be able, in a small way, to be mirrors of that grace for others. And the more we reflect God's grace, the more we diminish the amount of hurt and pain in our world.
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