Grace Makes Beauty Out Of Ugly Things
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about The Grace of God, today I want to carry on the conversation.
Partly because the conversation inside me is still going on.
I was awake early this morning about 6:10 am, at about 6:20 I decided to read. I finished reading In The Grip Of Grace
God has not finished talking with me about Grace yet!
One of my favourite spiritual songs is Grace by U2. Listen to it here.
Grace by U2
I really love this song and I have put the lyrics below, I’ve underlined my favourite parts of the song.
Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name
Grace
It’s a name for a girl
It’s also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything
Grace, she’s got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She’s got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma
She travels outside of karma
When she goes to work
You can hear her strings
Grace finds beauty in everything
Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things
Grace Makes Beauty Out Of Ugly Things
I’m up to chapter 3 in The Ragamuffin Gospel and one of the things shared in the book is that Jesus came for the unloved, the rejects, the broken. (I’ve said this in my words, not Mannings.)
People often feel they aren’t good enough for God, they are right none of us are, it’s just some of us think we are.
Yesterday, I shared a little how I was making my own rules up – better rules than God’s – in my relationship with God, I tried to make myself right with God through all the good things I did for Him. I preached, I played in the worship group, I was a worship leader.
All these great things, was I showing God that I was worthy of His love? That I was a little bit more special than most others…
… My ‘right deeds’ sent me about 8 years into the wilderness. In this time I suffered with depression, abused alcohol and wasn’t a very good husband in all honesty.
I prayed at times, but my main prayer (off and on) during this time, was asking God to kill me. I hated being alive, I even cursed the day that I was born.
So, I write this from a place of brokenness, believing that God will put me back together in a beautiful way. Remember the words, Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.
Today, you can reach out to God, don’t worry about the filthy things that you have done and said, He knows. It doesn’t have to separate you from God. Remember He is love, grace and mercy.
And His ears are open to your prayers and his arms are open wide.
“(God) immense in mercy and with incredible love, He embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did this on his own, with no help from us! the He picked us up and set us down in the highest heaven in company with Jesus… Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish!”
Ephesian 2 (The Message)
Relationship with God is not about what you can do or what you have done, but about what He did.
What is your response?
Keith Claridge