A Prayer for a  Better Understanding of God’s Grace

 

 

Holy God, Your who are pure and perfect, whose love is patient and kind, does not envy, does not  boast, is not proud nor is it rude, is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrong, this week our minds and hearts are captivated by Your amazing, astounding, awesome, grace.  The words of the hymn writer fill our minds and hearts. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.  I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” Many of us can name the day, the place and the hour when we realized that amazing grace in our lives.

 

Father, how fitting that this week we will talk with You about the Supreme Court’s recent ruling approving same sex marriages.   Many of us have been angered and upset at this ruling.    We have always believed that marriage is between a man and a woman.  We have always believed that mankind is continually being called to a higher ethic and a greater holiness. Certainly this decision moves our country in a backward and a downward direction.  O Lord, how can it be right in Your sight?  Should we not call fire and brimstone down from the heavens above that we might show how despicable we find this ruling?  

 

We wait for Your answer.  But then, in the midst of our so called righteous anger, You remind us of Your grace.  You remind us that all have sinned and come short of Your glory; that we are all prone by nature to serve the flesh; that everyone of us can cry out, “There but by the grace of God, go I.”   Only as Your Spirit opens our eyes and Your grace breaks our stubborn wills, do we seek holiness and truth.    

 

O God, it behooves us to remember that You did not give Your Son to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him; and neither should we condemn even those who have sought happiness through a relationship which is unnatural, abnormal and contrary to Your Word.  Let us love all those for whom Christ died. Let us share our love with them.  Let us show compassion to them.   Let us seek to understand their pain, their hurts and their emptiness.  Let us be examples of the peace, hope and happiness one finds when one lives a life surrendered to Jesus.  This, O God, is the prayer of our hearts as we celebrate Your unmerited, undeserving, unrestricted, nonpartisan, forgiving grace.

 

In Jesus name we pray.   Amen