Amazing Grace (Daily Devotional)

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see. It was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved, how precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.

Hello and welcome to Living Supernaturally, welcome to Songspiration. We are taking this time to sing some of the songs and look at the lives of the songwriters, who wrote some beautiful hymns that inspired the church and brought life and transformation because of the truth of what it proclaimed. This hymn was written by John Newton. John Newton was just a little boy of 7 years when his mother died. His mother had a very positive influence on his life, but she died when he was just 7. His father was a captain on a slave trading ship, so he never spent much time with his family. So, after spending time with relatives and moving around, John Newton joined his father on the slave trading ship and his life changed. His heart became hardened towards the things of God. He saw the cruelty and the harshness of life on the slave trading vessel, and he became hardened towards all other human beings as well. They travelled to the west coast of Africa, and they took people from there as slaves and brought them to work on the plantations and he was living such a hardened life. He saw people as commodities rather than human beings created in the image of God. But once, on the sea, they faced a life-threatening storm, and he was really fearful for his life and John Newton cried out to God and he prayed asking that his life might be spared. His prayer was answered, the storm abated, there was great calm on the sea and for the first time, John Newton released that the power of God was so much greater than anything else he had known. So, he had a change of heart and as he went back to the shore, he gave his heart and life to the Lord, he wanted to serve this amazing God who forgave him and gave him a change of heart, despite the kind of life that he had lived and the kind of wickedness he had extended to people around. He wrote about this amazing grace of God. He was 39 years old, when he began his preaching and music ministry, and this ‘amazing grace’ was one of the hymns that he had written. He was truly a man who was forgiven much, and he knew the value of amazing grace.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come, tis grace hath brought me safe thus far and grace will take me home. The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures, he will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures.

Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for your most amazing grace because of which we are saved. We thank you that you are able to save to the uppermost. Today, we have that encouragement and assurance that your grace which has led us till today, will continue to lead, you will continue to lead us with your amazing grace. We thank you for what is available to us, we thank you for your forgiveness, grace, and mercy which empowers and strengthens us, today and for our tomorrows, we thank you, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.