(Joni sings “Saved By Grace”)
I love the last word in that song... grace. We’re saved by it, we’re delivered by it... actually, I shouldn’t say “it,” because when God gives grace He is imparting to us His strength, His favor, His love and approval... He resists the proud but He gives grace to the humble... God’s grace is made perfect in our weakness... God is gracious to those who fear Him.
It’s something I’ve learned in this wheelchair all these years. And it’s something I often say, the weaker I am the harder I have to lean on God, but the harder I lean on God, the more I see how high and deep and wide and long and broad is His grace. His grace to sustain... His grace to keep on going.
I found a poem the other day — don’t know the author — but, like this beautiful old hymn, it pretty much sums the grace of God, as well as the point about our weakness... it sums it up:
Pressed out of measure, and pressed to all length;
Pressed so intensely it seems beyond strength;
Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll:
Pressure by foes, and pressure by friends;
Pressure on pressure till life nearly ends:
Pressed into knowing no helper but God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod:
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things:
Pressed into living a life in the Lord;
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured.
It’s what your problems will do to you — press you up against the Savior. But the Savior saves you. Saved by grace you are. In your weakness, grace — His grace — is made perfect.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
© Joni and Friends