All That You Are

     This morning I was reminded of a quick transition that I had made a couple of weekends ago during worship. Our youth praise band led our combined service today, our Commitment Sunday with the theme “All In”. They were wonderful and sharing their heart for worship always makes a Sunday morning worship time special for me.

     However, I want to dial back and share my thoughts about the transition I went through during the same song that started off our service this morning. It wasn’t anything major and nor was it a lengthy process, it took the blink of God’s eye and was over and we moved on.

     The last line of “This is Amazing Grace” is “Jesus, I sing for All that You’ve done for me”. My first thought when singing through those words was ‘shouldn’t we be singing for all that He is?’  I shook it off pretty quickly because I was there to glorify God and not to knit-pick; knit-picking being a manifestation of my judgmental heart/spirit. I made it through the rest of the song in good shape just as this morning I rose to the occasion and praised Him.

    The full chorus:

“This is amazing grace

This is unfailing love

That You would take my place

That You would bear my cross

You would lay down Your life

That I would be set free

Jesus, I sing for

All that You’ve done for me”

     Later after that first time through the song as I over analyzed, as I am so likely to do, I did come to an interesting conclusion about this little knit that I had picked. When I thought about it I had to believe that really, Jesus is all He does. He is known as the Prince of Peace because He brings peace. He is the Lamb who was slain because He is. He is known as our Savior because he does and because he made the sacrifice for us. So to sing for all that He’s done for us is just fine because He is all that He’s done and more than we can comprehend.

     Even with this innocent realization I have to take pause. If Jesus is all that He’s done, am I not all that I’ve done and do? Sobering. And therefore if I am of God’s Kingdom, should I not do those things that are found in the Kingdom, and behave as though I am saved? The realization of this gives me leverage. I don’t have to knit-pick because I am His and I can put that judgment aside and move on.

     I love the verse that follows the first chorus:

“Who brings our chaos back into order

Who makes the orphan a son and daughter

The King of Glory, the King above all kings”

In His grip, jerry