Part III of our Series on Visiting and Remembering

There’s something important about this Work of Mercy of Visiting and Remembering and it relates specifically to salvation. When we became Christians, it wasn’t a choice we made to accept a general or standing offer. According to Scripture, we received a personal visitation from God:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev 3:20)

He came, and—by his grace—you hosted him. And in his visit he raised you up from the dead:

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:1-7)

Sum it up and say: God visited you. And now that you are incorporated into his body, he dwells in you and you dwell in him…and he continues his visit—his personal inspection, his seeing you with his own eyes—today.

Note his humility in the following scripture in terms of his description of his own role of being among us:

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them (Matt 18:20).

So when we pray, we don’t just pray for endurance or help or the power to forgive. We pray for him to visit us—to be among us—to abide with us. And that prayer is the basis of Abide With Me, the song that .W church members recently learned and which I commend to you as well.  Rather than read it only, go here and start the video. Then, come back here and follow along!

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

 

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;

Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;

Change and decay in all around I see;

O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

 

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;

But as Thou dwell’st with Thy disciples, Lord,

Familiar, condescending, patient, free.

Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

 

Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,

But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,

Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea—

Come, Friend of sinners, and thus bide with me.

 

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;

And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,

Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,

On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

 

I need Thy presence every passing hour.

What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

 

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;

Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.

Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?

I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

 

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;

Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.

Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

What other hymns or worship songs come to mind that relate to God Visiting and Remembering us?