The God who made the world and everything in it is the LORD of heaven and earth
and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands,
as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and
everything else… ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’
[Acts 17:24-25, 28a]
The opening song in The Greatest Showman is ‘The Greatest Show’, during which the cast try to convince the audience that their show is the best in the world. It has the lines: “It’s everything you ever want, it’s everything you ever need, and it’s here right in front of you.” Now I’m not advocating that the film has everything that you ever want or need, but those words definitely apply to God.
As the writer of Acts says, God gives life, breath and everything else. In God we have all that we truly want or need, right in front of us. Our God is full of both grace and mercy. God’s mercy means we don’t get the punishment for sin that we deserve, and God’s grace is all the gifts and blessing that God gives which we don’t deserve.
We are part of ‘the greatest show’, part of the story of human life with God: the story of God and God’s people didn’t end with Revelation, but continues today. God is in our world, showing mercy, giving grace and giving us all that we ever want or need. The hymn ‘There’s a wideness in God’s mercy’ by Frederick William Faber (Singing the Faith 416) is just one of many that speak of the gifts of God. A more modern choice would be Matt Redman’s ‘10,000 Reasons’, which as the title suggests, reminds us that we have many reasons to praise our God.
Gracious and Merciful God,
you love us with an unconditional love;
in you we live and move and have our being.
The blessings that you bestow are too numerous to count.
We praise and thank you for all that you have done for us,
for all that you are doing and will continue to do for us.
Thank you for making us part of your story, the greatest story there is.
Amen
You can download this Prayer for the Week here
Prayers for August 2019 by Revd Claire Rawlinson
Image: photo by Lê Hoàng on Unsplash
