Lent Book: https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/an-ocean-of-grace
My jottings:
(Comments welcome)
Ocean of Grace (5):
SUNDAY – Your Grace Shines Brightest (p24ff)
Meditate on the fact that
every good thing we have is a gift from God. Each breath, each heartbeat, every
thought is a God’s grace to us. This greatly increases our joy in all these
things: we are not just enjoying them as good stuff, but as the gift of our
heavenly Father who loves us. It’s all personal and planned for our good and
for his glory!
The gospel diamond shines
brightest against the black back-cloth of our sin.
Each of the paragraphs is
worth reflecting on:
Christ’s humility,
although he was Almighty God by right
His patience with our
repeated slowness and foolishness and the same old sins
His love in all its
self-sacrifice
His mercy to debtors who
could never repay him
His meekness when he could
have commanded armies of angels
On the humility of Christ,
see further Philippians 2:5-11.
Isn’t it striking how we
undervalue the infinitely valuable Christ? We foolishly consider other things
more valuable than him, as did the Rich Young Ruler in the Gospels (e.g. Mark
10). Rather, like Paul, we ought to consider all things rubbish, dung, compared
to knowing Christ. (Philippians 3).
What matters most to you
and why?
Why is Jesus valuable?
How could you increase your
appreciation of him?
Consider him as the Pearl
of Great Price or the Treasure hidden in a field. (Matthew 13)
Do you often think of God
/ Jesus as happy? Blessed? Joyful?
The Christian tradition is
that God is entirely blessed. He is eternally unchanging (immutable) and cannot
be acted upon. He does not have emotions like ours. He is impassable. God can
never been down in the dumps! If God were to lose any of his attributes, he
would no longer be God. God is always perfectly happy and satisfied. Though,
speaking of him in human terms, the Bible also tells us of course that God is
angry with sin and grieved over suffering etc. The Happy God loves and cares
for us.
Again, the richness of
this imagery deserves dwelling upon: Christ as beauty, music, honey, perfume,
health etc.
Maybe we think more about
the truth and goodness of God than we do about his beauty? We might do well to
dwell on this.
Do you find Christ
attractive like this?
Pray that God would open
your eyes afresh to Jesus’ loveliness and cause you to fall more deeply in love
with him.
Suggested hymn: Amazing
love (My Lord what love is this)
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