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A Wide, Sweeping Grace
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July 22 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 31-32; Acts 23:16-35

A Wide, Sweeping Grace


READ ISAIAH 44:21–23
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I have swept away your offenses.
Isaiah 44:22
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Alexa, Amazon’s voice-controlled device, has an interesting feature: it can erase everything you say. Whatever you’ve asked Alexa to do, whatever information you’ve asked Alexa to retrieve, one simple sentence (“Delete everything I said today”) sweeps it all clean, as if it never happened. It’s too bad that the rest of our life doesn’t have this capability. Every misspoken word, every disgraceful act, every moment we wish we could erase—we’d just speak the command, and the entire mess would disappear.

There’s good news, though. God does offer each of us a clean start. Only, He goes far deeper than merely deleting our mistakes or bad behavior. God provides redemption, a deep healing that transforms us and makes us new. “Return to me,” He says, “I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22). Even though Israel rebelled and disobeyed, God reached out to them with lavish mercy. He “swept away [their] offenses like a cloud, [their] sins like the morning mist” (v. 22). He gathered all their shame and failures and washed them away with His wide, sweeping grace.

God will do the same with our sin and blunders. There’s no mistake He can’t mend, no wound He can’t heal. God’s mercy heals and redeems the most painful places in our soul—even the ones we’ve hidden for so very long. His mercy sweeps away all our guilt, washes away every regret.
By Winn Collier


**REFLECT & PRAY
So many regrets, so many things I’d do differently.
God, You tell me that You can forgive and heal me.
Thank You for Your mercy and grace.

Where are you most aware of your failures? How does
the image of God sweeping away all your mistakes give you hope?

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SCRIPTURE INSIGHT<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Isaiah was the most prolific of the writing prophets, but the great size of his book is eclipsed in importance by its content. Commentator John Gill wrote: “He should rather be called an evangelist than a prophet . . . certain it is that no one writes so fully and clearly of the person, offices, grace, and kingdom of Christ; of his incarnation and birth of a virgin; of his sufferings and death, and the glory that should follow, as [Isaiah] does.” Isaiah’s focus on Messiah and His mission was vital to preparing the way for Jesus’ coming, for it provided Israel with critical identifiers of Him and certain hope in His promised victory.

For more on Isaiah, check out Knowing God through Isaiah. Bill Crowder

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