Tag Archives: God’s grace

Faith Practice, the Exercise

Bible Meditation

torah_500The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.
Lamentations 3:22

A secular thinker who hears you testify to God’s love will ask if you can prove that God exists. This verse was written by someone who has experienced the presence and goodness of the Lord. Can you use your own experience with God to prove his existence?

How do you respond to people who reject your testimony that God is present with you?

Can you think of any person in the Bible who doubted the existence of God? What happened to the person or persons?

Can you think of any person in the Bible who doubted that God was speaking to him? What happened to the person or persons?

Why does the author of this verse cherish God’s steadfast love? What has God done in your life that is evidence of God’s steadfast love?

By Katherine Harms, author of Oceans of Love available for Kindle at Amazon.com.

Image: Torah Scroll
Source:  http://library.duke.edu/exhibits/hebrewbible/torah.html
License:  Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0

Faith Practice, the Exercise

A Hymn for Meditation

hymnalAmazing Grace

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.

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
the hour I first believed.

The Lord has promised good to me,
his word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
as long as life endures.

Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come.
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far
and grace will lead me home.

When we’ve been there ten thousand years
bright shining as the sun
we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
than when we first begun.

By John Newton

In lexicons exploring the original biblical languages, the Greek word usually translated “grace” in the New Testament often corresponds to the Old Testament word for “God’s unmerited favor.” If you thought of the word “grace” in this song as “God’s unmerited favor” how would it change your understanding of the song?

If you were baptized as a baby and then confirmed in your teens, do you remember any time when you felt lost or disconnected from your faith? If yes, then what turned that experience around?

If you received Christ by your own deliberate choice as a child or an adult, what motivated you? What is the difference in your view of your life before that moment and afterward?

What sorts of dangers or embarrassments have you experienced because someone discovered that you are a Christian? What do you do when you realize that you feel afraid to tell anyone that you are a Christian?

Verse 3 is a testimony to the hymnwriter’s confidence in God. How would you state your confidence in your own words? Has anyone ever asked you why you believe what you believe? If so, how did you answer?

Secularists believe that God cannot possibly exist because they cannot see or touch him. How would you explain to a secularist how you know with certainty that God loves you?