Daily Thought for Tuesday 1st April 2025
“Fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’
They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts;
there is no one who does good.”
Psalm 53:1 (NRSV)
Amazing grace
Lorna Souter
We might think of fools as being rather silly, but in the Bible they are people who intentionally choose to reject God. They decide God will have no part in their life, but that then shapes their character and they become corrupt, without moral compass.
Looking out on our world we may be saddened that so many people seem to want to reject God in their lives. That can come from an early age. Usually in exploring the Bible with P4-5 classes in primary school, I find an openness and curiosity amongst the children to listen and to ask questions. I’m often dismayed that just a few years later in P7, many of the children have become closed to God and the Bible. With a rather disdainful, incredulous expression on their face and tone in their voice, they ask me: “Do you really believe in God?”
Sadly, it’s when people turn their backs on God that bad things start happening. Sin and worldliness abound. In such a situation, Psalm 53 offers God’s verdict on all those who wilfully deny and defy him and run things entirely their own way. The condition of humanity left to its own devices is that ‘there is no one who does good.’
Yet reflecting further on the psalm, it becomes evident that none of humanity is free from sin. All humanity is prone to fall away and act as if they don’t know God. Even God’s people do so. But there is a different attitude of heart. Where the fool who denies God behaves with arrogance, God’s people turn to him with deepest humility.
We know that God has saved us from the sin in our lives, not because we deserved to be saved but simply because God showed us mercy. While God might have had every reason to give up on humanity, he didn’t, and instead pressed on to that place where once and for all through Jesus, his Son, we could be made one with him. Considering our ongoing predicament with sin, God’s amazing grace won through and as we trust in him we are so wonderfully assured that we are forever embraced in his love.
Shall we pray?:
Gracious God, we are lost without you. When we are still so prone to sin, thank you that you don’t give up on us but in your amazing grace, you ever embrace us and restore us as we trust in you and in our Saviour, Jesus. Amen.
Lorna Souter is minister of Cockpen & Carrington linked with Lasswade & Rosewell in the Presbytery of Lothian & Borders.