Today was one of those days when I woke up needing some kind of encouragement. I want every little thing I do to have some kind of deep lasting value. The problem is not that every little thing I do does not have lasting value. I really do believe everything I do has eternal consequences. But I forget this when I live my life for anything other than God and the life to which He has called me. If I live my life as a performance for people, then everything I do behind closed doors will seem to have no consequence (when in reality it does). My private thoughts will seem worthless, and my time spent alone will only seem to be a waste of time. Sometimes I get busy, and I forget why I’m living. My loyalties are all over the place. Then, I’m fearful that my life has no worth, or things I do will go unnoticed. It’s times like this when I feel myself begin to sink.
I read this hymn this morning, and it reminded me that I have been redeemed. Because of God’s great love and God pouring out his wrath on Christ instead of me, I have been called to God and adopted as his son. Not only have I been adopted, but I have been reborn into His family! No longer am I subject to God’s wrathful anger, but I am disciplined as a loving father disciplines his son. He is making me holy because he saw me in my blind sin and loved me and had compassion on me. He saw that I needed forgiveness and life, and He gave it to me because He loves me.
Hear what he has done for my soul!
-John Newton
Saved by blood I live to tell,
What the love of CHRIST hath done;
He redeemed my soul from hell,
Of a rebel made a son:
O, I tremble still, to think
How secure I lived in sin;
Sporting on destruction’s brink,
Yet preserved from falling in.
In his own appointed hour,
To my heart the Savior spoke,
Touched me by his Spirit’s pow’r,
And my dang’rous slumber broke.
Then I saw and owned my guilt,
Soon my gracious LORD replied;
“Fear not, I my blood have spilt,
’Twas for such as thee I died.”
Shame and wonder, joy and love,
All at once possessed my heart;
Can I hope thy grace to prove,
After acting such a part?
“Thou hast greatly sinned, he said,
But I freely all forgive;
I myself thy debt have paid,
Now I bid thee rise and live.”
Come, my fellow–sinners, try,
JESUS’ heart is full of love;
Oh that you, as well as I,
May his wondrous mercy prove!
He has sent me to declare,
All is ready, all is free;
Why should any soul despair,
When he saved a wretch like me?
Andrew Thomasson 