Friday, June 21, 2013

Scenes of Grace 15


Isaac and Rebekah had been married for 20 years and still they had no children.  While some people today assert that children are a burden or an inconvenience, this has never been the attitude of God nor was it the attitude of Isaac and Rebekah.  In Genesis 25 we find Isaac pleading with God that He would open Rebekah’s womb.  In grace God gave them twins. 

William Williams, the great Welsh evangelist, wrote the hymn “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”.  This hymn asks for God’s guidance for the “pilgrim in this barren land”.  Isaac was certainly a pilgrim.  The land wasn’t his and he was often reminded of it.  The hymn goes on to say, “I am weak, but Thou art mighty; hold me with Thy powerful hand.”  Isaac could not open Rebehak’s womb.  Isaac could not fulfill the promises that God had made to Abraham and that Abraham had repeated to him.  Isaac could not, but God could. 

It is the grace of God in our lives that He does the things that He can and that we cannot.  Even when we don’t know what we need or how to pray for it, God in His grace does both for us.  Romans 8:26 gives us this promise.  We can’t make the rain fall and we can’t make the sun shine.  God can.  God, in His marvelous grace, is constantly doing every day the things that we can’t do.  He is doing the things that we can’t even think to ask being done.  For Isaac and Rebekah He opened the closed womb so that they would have the blessing of children and that He could accomplish all the purposes of His eternal promises.

Isaac believed that God both could and would work in His home.  William Williams goes on in his hymn to include this verse, “Care and doubting, gloom and sorrow, fear and shame are mine no more.  Faith knows naught of dark tomorrow, for my Savior goes before.”  Isaac walked in faith with God.  He didn’t know the details of God’s plan, but He knew the God of the plan.  That was enough for Him.  For all other matters of his life he rested in the loving grace of God.   With Isaac and William Williams we need to sing the final words of verse 3, “Songs of praises, songs of praises, I will ever give to Thee.  I will ever give to Thee.”  Let us live our lives as a song of praise to the power and care of His grace. 
 
The Friday Benediction
Until Monday, my friends, may the good God envelop you with His grace; may you prove the common confession of faith, “I believe in the holy Christian church and in the fellowship of the saints”, and may you be enriched with joy and hope as you exercise that confession this weekend.  Amen
 
     You may also enjoy this inspirational devotional book, The Gospel According to Molly,
available here: 
                        http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BTSN1DU
  

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