In her sweet testimonial hymn
“Satisfied!” Clara Williams clearly captures the condition of humanity. Her opening stanza “All my life long I had
panted for a drink from some clear spring that I thought would quench the burning
of the thirst I felt within” paints an accurate picture of the desires of
mankind. While not seeking for God,
which Romans 3 emphatically points out that we do not do, we search for the
benefits of the grace of God. We yearn
for grace. Yearned will be our “Y” in alphabetizing grace.
What do we yearn for that grace
provides? We yearn for forgiveness from
all our sins against God and man. People
realize that simple self forgiveness is not enough. In Christ we have complete forgiveness
through the grace of God. We yearn for
hope. The macro-world and the
micro-world often set us into a state of despondency. All is not right and the future is very
uncertain. Where is hope? The Bible says hope comes from God and His
abundant grace. When both the
macro-world and micro-world are spinning out of control both now and the
future, God is the same and offers the constancy of hope. We yearn for a certainty of a positive
outcome after death. The Bible tells us
that that certainty is heaven and it is reached by grace through faith in the
work of Christ on the cross. We yearn
for a constant friend. Worldly friends and family can often be fickle or
unresponsive to us. This is why Joseph
Scriven’s hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” resonates so loudly. The world wants a constant friend and by grace
God has given His Son to be ours.
Technically we do not yearn for
God. We do, however, yearn for the
blessings of God. We should take heart
that the God of those blessings came to seek us out and give them to us. One of the simplest and easiest to remember
of all verses in the Bible is this verse of comfort, purpose and hope in Luke
19:10. “For the Son of Man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost.”
Grace sought us that we might have the yearnings of our hearts
fulfilled. With Clara Williams sing her
triumphant chorus, “Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul so long has
craved! Jesus satisfies my longings – through His blood I now am saved.” O the great fulfillment of yearned for 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 can
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