The grace of God that calls us to be
His own is also the grace of God that leads us in His particular way. God called Abraham by grace while he was an
idolater in Ur. God called him to go
where God would show Him, not where God told him in advance. Abraham trusted the God of grace and
followed. Thomas Olivers in his great
hymn “The God of Abraham Praise” reminds us that the God who both called and
led Abraham will still lead us today.
At my dad’s funeral I intertwined
the majestic and hopeful words of this hymn with my sermon. My dad died of Alzheimer’s disease. He hardly knew anything at the time he
died. If he remembered the name of God
he could not say it. Verse 4 of this
hymn declares, however, that by His great grace God remembers us and His
promises to us. “He by Himself has
sworn; I on His oath depend, I shall, on eagle wings up borne to Heav’n ascend.
I shall behold His face; I shall His power adore, and sing the wonders of His
grace forevermore.”
We all are called to follow God to
the end He has chosen for us. For some,
like my dad, that somewhere might be the emptiness of Alzheimer’s. It might be a land of vacant mind and vague
memories. It might be the utter
loneliness of being in a land where you don’t even know yourself. But God knows. God has led.
God will keep. The end of
Abraham’s journey was as much in the care and grace of God as the
beginning. All the mighty deeds along
the way; all the practice of faith in times of trial; all the triumphant
victories of God displayed before our eyes can fade into a blank of
nothingness, but God has not done so. He
is still the God who led us out from the darkness of sin into His brilliant
light of hope. That light still
shines. Those promises still hold. The
God of Abraham is still leading and caring until our earthly end. Then the great God of Abraham, in the
marvelous revelation of His grace, will reveal to us the Promised Land.
We are not forsaken. We are remembered by our God. We are
remembered by the God who called Abraham.
Sing these words of Thomas Olivers with great hope. “The God of Abraham
praise, whose all sufficient grace shall guide me all my happy days, in all my
ways.
He calls a worm His friend, He calls Himself my God! And He shall save me to the end, thro’ Jesus’ blood.”
He calls a worm His friend, He calls Himself my God! And He shall save me to the end, thro’ Jesus’ blood.”
You
may also enjoy this inspirational devotional book, The Gospel According to Molly,
available
here:
No comments:
Post a Comment