7- Hymns- Amazing Grace
As I listen to this familar hymn, a word stands out that isnt common in most worship songs today.
'That saved a wretch like me.'
WRETCH, noun
1. A miserable person; one sunk in the deepest distress.
2. A worthless mortal.
3. A person sunk in vice.
John Newton, pens these words to describe himself.
As I dig deeper into my own salvation story, the who I was and who I became after surrendering my life to Jesus- I am forced to ask- was I a wretch as well?
Although I grew up in a christian home, My life saw a dramatic change when I was in college. I had a couple years of what our culture would call 'living it up' and yet looking back I was deeply miserable, lonley, selfish and entraped in many vices. In short, I was 'living it up' but wasn't really living. I later described those years with these lines:
'I looked fine on the outside, but like paper mache, inside I was empty.'
Now as a new creation in Christ, I have found light and freedom. But there are days when I feel the tension of my former self, old habits die hard, they say. I feel the pull of speaking in frustration towards those I love,
the escape of selfishness instead of service, the thoughts that tend towards anxiety for control.
Paul, the most famous Apostle of Jesus and the penmen of most of the new testament books says this:
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very things I hate.
For.I know that nothing good dwells in me that is, in my flesh.
For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Romans 7: 15,18-19, 24
Thankfully, Thats not how Paul ends his train of thought.
It ends with: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
He explains that through Christ, His old habits, his old nature, his flesh as he calls it, doesn't have the final say.
And neither does ours.
We can walk in the strength that Christ provides. We will not walk out this new nature perfectly, but perfection isn't the point. But we will more and more shine light into the dark corners of our hearts and lives, more and more become who we are in Christ.
And that marvel alone, the transformation and salvation of who we were to who we are, is more then enough for us to say- Amazing Grace!
Listen to: Amazing Grace - By Reawaken Hymns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDmcdZTEU5E&list=RDaDmcdZTEU5E&start_radio=1
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