[Friday's Devotional] - Amazing Grace

My final song this week is one that, when I first heard it, I thought was too soppy, sickly, and over the top. Definitely cringe-making - after all, I had not asked Jesus into my life at that time and this was considered "religious drivel".

Unsurprising then, that I now find it beautiful and so meaningful.  I don't remember who sang it when I first heard it but that doesn't matter.

What song am I talking about?  Sorry, I should have said – "Amazing Grace".

The words are so appropriate in the way that I came to ask Jesus into my life and accepted God's love.  How different to some of the songs I've mentioned this week.

I did say how I sang in a choir and I have always enjoyed singing, but over the years the opportunities to sing were few and far between, and anyway my smoking habit helped neither my breathing nor my voice.  Nobody seemed to want me to sing, so why would I bother to try.  Yes, I made a little bit of effort when I went to church, but without any real enthusiasm.  Then once I had asked Jesus into my life it all changed.  I finally stopped smoking and although my voice still was not as good as it once was, and still isn't there yet, the desire to sing returned.  But now I was singing to and for our Lord.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost but now I'm found, was blind but now I see.

And now those words mean so much, and when I sing to our Lord my voice is beginning to soar again.  So if you are near me in church or anywhere when I am singing I hope you will find it uplifting, but if I catch a breath or seem to falter, forgive me.  Singing to our Lord can often blow me away.  And if I dab my eyes at the end of our praise you will know He has touched me with his love again.

May God bless your voice, whatever it is like, whenever you lift it up in praise.

Jim Finch