I Asked The Lord That I Might Grow
I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.
’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.
These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”
-John Newton
I was blessed by this article that I ran across along with this song:
How many times do we beg God for some great fruit of the spirit.... “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith...” (Galatians 5:22) and then recoil with shock and horror when He sends trials and affliction our way. If we are truly seeking these spiritual fruits, may we be willing to pay the price of what we desire, and find our all in HIM!
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.
’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.
I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.
These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”
-John Newton
I was blessed by this article that I ran across along with this song:
The Lord truly answered Newton’s prayer for grace and faith, but grace and faith do not equal immediate subdued sin and rest for the Christian. Rather, the Lord answered Newton’s prayer by breaking him and graciously leading him to trust Him. This poem cuts to the heart of many issues in the Christian’s life. All too often we think, if we could just have relief from this one besetting sin, we would be more holy or we would be free to trust God more. Rather than thinking like this, we need to be asking God for broken hearts, hearts that are contrite and humble before him (Ps 51). A corollary to these requests means we need to be completely open to how God will answer these prayers. He is the sovereign Lord, and if he deems necessary, he will employ inward trials to make us more dependent on Him, to make us more like Jesus.-John Fraiser (emphasis added)
How many times do we beg God for some great fruit of the spirit.... “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith...” (Galatians 5:22) and then recoil with shock and horror when He sends trials and affliction our way. If we are truly seeking these spiritual fruits, may we be willing to pay the price of what we desire, and find our all in HIM!
posted by Ryan H at
10:10 PM
5 Comments:
This was an encouraging, timely post. I thank the Lord for you!
Peace. --Jacob
By
Jacob, at 12:39 AM
Thanks Ry, for echoing my heart... Hard to learn lessons, even after so many years...
By
Anonymous, at 4:05 PM
mom just sent this to me-- it goes with your post...
The battle is lost or won in the secret places of the will before God,
never first in the external world. The Spirit of God apprehends me and I
am obliged to get alone with God and fight the battle out before Him.
Until this is done, I lose every time. The battle may take one minute or a
year, that will depend on me, not on God; but it must be wrestled out
alone before God, and I must resolutely go through the hell of a
renunciation before God. Nothing has any power over the man who has fought
out the battle before God and won there.
If I say, "I will wait till I get into the circumstances and then put God
to the test," I shall find I cannot. I must get the thing settled between
my self and God in the secret places of my soul where no stranger
intermeddles, and then I can go forth with the certainty that the battle
is won. Lose it there, and calamity and disaster and upset are as sure as
God's decree. The reason the battle is not won is because I try to win it
in the external world first. Get alone with God, fight it out before Him,
settle the matter there once and for all.
In dealing with other people, the line to take is to push them to an
issue of will. That is the way abandonment begins. Every now and again,
not often, but sometimes, God brings us to a point of climax. That is the
Great Divide in the life; from that point we either go towards a more and
more dilatory and useless type of Christian life, or we become more and
more ablaze for the glory of God - My Utmost for His Highest.
By
Anonymous, at 4:29 PM
I love your blog! And I love Lighthouses too! Happy new year.
In Christ, from Spain,
Noemí/Adasa
By
Adasa Aeneas, at 2:49 PM
I have been praying for God to make my life and the life of my husband and children (all young adults now)to be salt and light.
God has shown me that what Newton says is true that we go through a stripping away of the desire for the things of this world before we become salt and light.
Ouch, it hurts, but it is the flesh dying. God strength is made perfect in our weakness. May God be glorified! Thanks be to Him for his mercy adn goodness to us.
By
Anonymous, at 12:00 AM
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