New Morning Mercies #263

Corporate worship is designed to make you thankful, not just for possessions and accomplishments, but for what you’ve been given in Christ.

I carried all the seductions and attractions of life in a fallen world into worship that morning. I needed to have my values reoriented and my celebration recalibrated. I needed to become, once again, a thankful man. More specifically, I needed to be not just thankful for the ease, comforts, and accomplishments of life, but thankful for things of eternal value. I needed to see, understand, cry out for, and celebrate grace once again. It was the second song of the worship service that gave the sadness of sin and the joy of grace back to my heart:

No list of sins I have not done, no list of virtues I pursue,

no list of those I am not like can earn myself a place with you.

O God! Be merciful to me. I am a sinner through and through.

My only hope of righteousness is not in me, but only you.

No humble dress, no fervent prayer, no lifted hands, no tearful song,

no recitation of the truth, can justify a single wrong.

My righteousness is Jesus’ life. My debt was paid by Jesus’ death.

My weary load was borne by Him, and He alone can give me rest.

No separation from the world, no work I do, no gift I give

can cleanse my conscience, cleanse my hands, I cannot cause my soul to live.

But Jesus died and rose again. The pow’r of death is overthrown!

My God is merciful to me and merciful in Christ alone.

My righteousness is Jesus’ life. My debt was paid by Jesus’ death.

My weary load was borne by him, and He alone can give me rest.

And He alone can give me rest.

As I listened to my brothers and sisters sing and as I took in each phrase, I began to remember the impossibility of my sin and the totality of the solution that is found only in Jesus Christ. My heart was torn between weeping and laughing; sadness crashed into celebration as the grace of remembrance flooded my heart.

Forgetfulness seems like a minor thing. We forget little things every day. We get frustrated for a moment, then remember what we forgot, laugh it off, and go on our way. But forgetfulness is not a minor thing when it comes to grace. It robs you of worship, identity, humility, courage, and hope. Thank God he ordained for us to gather and remember.

For further study and encouragement: Colossians 1