O Great God Who Saved Me

Today is the 12-year anniversary since God saved me, and it’s cool how the Lord cleared my schedule (again) so that I could spend the evening with Him. The Lord has been doing a lot lately in my life and heart to weed out distractions, refocus my attention on Him, warm my affections toward Him, and give me a hunger for Him and His Word. This, in fact, is an answer to prayer. I have been praying for several weeks that the Lord would consume me with Himself and re-focus my attention on Him. I have asked others to pray that for me as well. And the Lord has been working out the answer to those prayers over these last few days, for which I am very thankful.

It seems that every year I have a song to go with the remembrance of when God saved me. This year is no exception. I have known for almost a year that I was going to use this song. It captures how God made me alive in Christ as well as the constant cry of my heart to be made like Christ in every way. The song is by Sovereign Grace and is called “O Great God.”

Verse 1
O great God of highest heaven
Occupy my lowly heart
Own it all and reign supreme
Conquer every rebel power
Let no vice or sin remain
That resists Your holy warYou have loved and purchased me
Make me Yours forevermore

This song begins with the words, “O great God of highest heaven,” and so does my testimony. In fact, God is the beginning of every testimony for He is the one who saves. He is the one who first loved me (1 John 4:19). He is the one who chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:3-4). He first sought me out when He sent Christ to die for me while I was still in my sins (Romans 5:8), and then He gave me a new heart, a heart that desires Him. So the rest of the first verse of this song is my prayer. I desire for God to own all of my heart and to clear out all rebellion that lurks within it, so that Jesus Christ can be exalted in and through my life. This, of course, is no easy work as I am still very much a sinner. I am easily distracted and too easily satisfied with things other than God. He is the best thing, which I know in my head, but sin is not rational or logical; it’s defiant. But God loves me and has made me His. Nothing can separate me from Him. And what’s more is that He empowers me to fight sin and temptation. He helps me to obey His commands. He has freed me from sin’s enslaving grip so that I can now say no to sin and yes to Christ (Romans 6).

Verse 2
I was blinded by my sin
Had no ears to hear Your voiceDid not know Your love within
Had no taste for heaven’s joys
Then Your Spirit gave me life
Opened up Your Word to me
Through the gospel of Your Son
Gave me endless hope and peace

Before Jesus saved me, I was blind to my sin and deaf to His voice. I did not desire Christ or the things of Christ. I was content living life my way; oblivious that I was on a road that led to destruction. God’s Word was closed to me. It made no sense when I read it. But then God, being rich in mercy, made me alive through Jesus Christ. He opened up my eyes to see the beauty of Jesus Christ and opened my ears to hear His voice. He gave me a hunger for the truth of His Word and both the will and ability to obey His commands. After I gave my life to Jesus, the Bible came alive to me. It was no longer just words on a page, but living words that spoke directly to my heart. God gave me eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to understand His Word (Deuteronomy 29:4). And the reason He could do this was because Jesus Christ obeyed God’s commands perfectly, took the punishment for my sin, died my death, and then came back to life so that I could be alive to God (Romans 6:11). This is the gospel and this is why Jesus Christ is able to give us endless hope and peace.

Help me now to live a life
That’s dependent on Your grace
Keep my heart and guard my soul
From the evils that I face
You are worthy to be praised
With my every thought and deed
O great God of highest heaven
Glorify Your Name through me

Finally, Jesus Christ is worthy. He deserves the reward for which He died. And, because of God’s unfathomable grace, I am part of that reward (!). This last verse is also my prayer. I want to become more dependent on the grace of Christ and less dependent on myself (which is a huge vice of mine). I want to make much of Christ with my every thought and deed. This has actually been on my mind a lot lately. The Lord has been impressing on my heart the need to restrict what I allow to influence me. It’s not that I don’t already do this but He is calling me to be even more careful about what movies I watch, what music I listen to, and what topics I talk about. The Bible says that we are to feed the Spirit and not the flesh (Romans 13:14) and that we are to walk in the Spirit (Romans 8:4-5; Galatians 5:16, 25). Whatever influences we allow into our lives will eventually come out; they will affect us even if we don’t think they do at the time. I am not saying this to be a legalist, for Christ has called us to freedom (Galatians 5:1), but so that our lives can be solely-focused on Jesus. Jesus Christ calls His followers to be radically committed to Him (Luke 9:23-27, 57-62). We are to forsake everything so that we may know Him and make Him known. Jesus also calls us to radical holiness. In fact, we cannot be radically obedient if we are not radically holy. The two go hand-in-hand. We are to be set apart from the world. How can we shine like lights in a dark world and be salt to a bland generation if we talk and act and chase after the same things unbelievers do? We can’t. But in Christ we can. He makes us to differ, and has secured our holiness by His death on the cross. I have been considering how I can live a life more pleasing to Him, more in line with who He is. He first turned my attention to prayer and to reading His Word (which is no surprise) and then to the things I can set aside so that I can make praying and Bible reading more of a priority. It's not easy and it is costing me something, but God in His kindness gives me both the desire and ability to do His will (Philippians 2:13). Plus, Jesus is worth it. :)