What Gift of Grace
One of my favourite worship songs of the moment is called "Yet Not I, But Through Christ in Me". It's a beautiful song by City Alight, which is a music team that leads worship at an Anglican church in Australia. What I love about City Alight's music is that it's rich lyrically. The words are beautiful. They almost sound like hymns, although they've been written in the last 10 years. And I love singing these songs because they are deep and make me think deeply about the things of God.
The Gift of Grace
The first verse of the song goes like this: "What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer? There is no more for heaven now to give. He is my joy, my righteousness and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace." Those are wonderful words, and I love that first line that says "what gift of grace is Jesus, my Redeemer?"
Do you recognize today what a gift Jesus is in a world where everybody's concerned about their rights? It's good to remember that Jesus is a gift. The redemption that God brings through Him is a gift. And I wonder if you are treasuring it as the greatest gift of all time.
"God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of Jesus Christ overflows to many" (Romans 5:15 NIV).
Finding Peace in Christ
The next line says "there is no more for heaven now to give." And I love singing that because it states that I don't need anything else except Him. Heaven has given me the gift of Jesus and that's enough for me. And I hope you can say that. I hope your love for Jesus is so deep that truly the gift of having Him in your life is enough to satisfy your heart.
That's what the rest of the verse says: “He is my joy”. Is Jesus your joy today? “He is my righteousness”. In other words, I know that I'm not good enough to be saved by God, but because I'm aligned with Jesus, God sees me as righteous! And “He is my freedom”, the songwriter says. Oh, what freedom we find in Christ. “He is my steadfast love” - steadfast, in other words, reliable - and “my deep and boundless peace”. Deep and boundless peace comes only through the gift of grace in Jesus.
What a wonderful selection of words to sing today. Sing it again, won't you, as the devotion ends with these words. And I pray that all of us will know that Jesus is our greatest gift, our joy, our love, our peace, and really all that we ever need.
