I’ll never forget the first time I saw the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir in concert. Nearly 200 people who had been redeemed out of the bowels of Brooklyn—former crack addicts and prostitutes included—sang their hearts out to God. Their faces glistened with tears running down their cheeks as they sang about God’s work of redemption and forgiveness in their lives.

As I watched them, I felt somewhat shortchanged. Since I was saved when I was 6, I didn’t feel the same depth of gratefulness that they displayed as they sang about the dramatic rescue God had provided for them. I was saved from things like biting my sister—not exactly a significant testimony!

Then the Spirit reminded me that if He had not rescued me when I was young, who knows where my life would be today? What destructive paths would I have stumbled down if He had not been teaching me qualities like servanthood and self-control?

It became clear that I too am a great debtor to His grace. It’s not only what we are saved “out of” but what we have been saved “from” that makes our hearts worthy of a spot in the chorus of the redeemed. Anyone who receives Jesus as Savior is welcome to join in the choir of praise: “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever” (Ps. 89:1).  — Joe Stowell