Wow. Are there any more powerful words than those? So true, so right to the point, so…convicting?
Yes, I said convicting.
When was the last time you really thought about the words to that famous hymn, took the time to meditate on them and let them wash over you with their anointing power and love? So often we Christians sing the words and smile at each other, never allowing them to reach down and take root in our souls. We are content in our shallow knowledge, our (can I say it?) shallow Christianity that allows us to meet together on Sundays and then live like the devil during the week.
This hymn convicts me.
I am guilty of glossing over not only the words, but the deeper meaning the author was trying to get across.
Just the thought that Jesus Christ died a horrible bloody death so that I can live with Him forever because, get this, He loves me, is enough to cause my heart to brim over with tears of awe and love and unspeakable joy at His mercy and GRACE. Even though I am the chiefest of sinners, He loves me, and that brings sweet music to my soul, for I was and am a WRETCH, full of sin and evil thoughts and deeds from birth and I don’t deserve the mercy He gives me. I was BLIND to my sin, stumbling around, LOST in the darkness, hands outstretched looking for mercy and peace and satisfaction but never finding it until He came and FOUND me. He took my outstretched hands and pulled me to Him, cradled me close, washed my eyes and my heart and at last I could SEE. I saw my sin for what it was, I saw the love He offered to me, I saw that no matter what the world said was good it was nothing in comparison to the AMAZING GRACE that Jesus offers!
Do you see the passion behind these words? The heart that created more than just words on a page, but an act of Worship to the only One who deserves it!!?
When you think about it, truly think about it, it changes everything.