By Jaymi Firestone
In browsing through a Spotify playlist I hadn’t listened to in quite some time, I ran across an old hymn called, “I Stand Amazed.” It was an updated version, but the melody and lyrics were true to the original.
After listening to the first few lines, I decided to restart it and actually focus on the words (something I’ve not really done before).
Wow.
Those lyrics are far more powerful than I ever realized.
Sitting in a pew as a 5 year old on Sunday morning with my legs dangling back and forth, unable to reach the floor, my biggest concern was staying still and quiet long enough to make it through service without the wrath of my momma coming down on me! I wasn’t worrying about the words of a song. I just didn’t want a spankin!
I want to present the lyrics to you without the music, so you can focus on them also:
I stand Amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. And wonder how He could love me, a sinner condemned unclean.
He took my sins and my sorrows. He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary, and suffered and died alone.
And when I’m with the ransomed in Glory, His face I at last shall see. T’will be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me.
Oh, how marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior’s love me.
I, as I’m sure you also, have sang this song many times before. It is one most grew up singing, one that’s lyrics are embedded in our minds. I know the words by heart. But, what I realized when listening to the words today, was that they weren’t written on my heart.
I may know the words, but I hadn’t taken the time to believe the words, to mean the words, to live the words.
Many of the songs we sing in worship today represent how tangible God is to us.
We sing about coming to Him, falling at His feet, we sing of grace and forgiveness and love. God is brought to a level that makes Him accessible, reachable, tangible.
We have access to Him through Jesus only, and our Christian roots in hymns like “I Stand Amazed” were written to be a reminder of that. They are a reminder that while God is forgiving and loving, He is also incredible, powerful, and completely incomprehensible.
We should be nothing shy of amazed, because the powerful, incomprehensible God we worship, sacrificed His Son to die for us, but raised Him from the dead after, in an epic showing of His power.
Only Jesus has ever overcome the grave, and that is proof as to how incredibly blessed we are, and how intangible His glory actually is.
“I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene.”
We spend so much of our time making Jesus fit into the box we have created for Him. But would we actually stand amazed in His presence?
Here’s my total honesty with you…
Sometimes I’m not sure the answer to that question is yes.
We’ve made Jesus so available to us without realizing that He is the Son of God… We forget that the ONLY way we have eternal life is through Him. He took on the sins of the world, just because He loves us.
Jesus made YOUR sins His own.
The purest man to ever walk this earth took on our sins and sorrows to save our soul.
He hung on a brutal cross for no other reason but that He loves us and wants us in Heaven with Him one day.
I hope we can all begin to realize how incredible God is and how undeserving we are of the love He gives us. He sent His Son from the unimaginable realm of Glory to earth, simply to die.
We are nothing more than sinners condemned to die, unclean, without the wonderful grace of God.
So bask in the glory of the salvation you’ve been given, and wake up tomorrow as a different person.
Walk in the light of His mercy. Because without Him, we are nothing.
