God Leads Us

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5-6

                Recently I awakened with the hymn “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” on my mind. The hymn was written by Fanny Crosby in 1875. It was one of her first published hymns.

                I found in various sources the story of its inception. Fanny was experiencing financial struggles. She urgently needed money and took it to the Lord in prayer. A few moments after her prayer, a gentleman donated five dollars to her, the precise amount she needed to meet her financial obligations. She recounted, “I have no way of accounting for this except to believe that God put it into the heart of this good man to bring the money.” The poem she wrote after this experience was “All the Way My Savior Leads Me.”

All the way my Savior leads me, what have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my guide.

Heav’nly peace divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, what’er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me, cheers each winding path I tread,

Gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the Living Bread.

Though my weary steps may falter and my soul athirst may be,

Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me, oh, the fullness of His love!

Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father’s house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings its flight to realms of day. This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.

                As our Experiencing God study reminds us, God pursues a continuing love relationship with us that is real and personal. As we walk with Him, we realize His provision in ways seen and unseen. Sometimes trials come that test our faith but ultimately, may we acknowledge as did Fanny Crosby, Jesus does all things well. He has a plan and a purpose. Trust Him.

                May we stay connected to the vine (Jesus) through His Word, prayer, and fellowship with fellow believers in the church. Our paths may wind through desert seasons, but Jesus is the water supply that quenches our eternal thirst. In the end may we say as Fanny Crosby said, “Jesus led me all the way.”

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FOCUSED

One of the casualties of aging to which I find myself a victim is the dimming of the eyes.  Ecclesiastes 12 counsels the young person to remember God, their Creator, in their youth before the aging process takes over and various faculties, as listed in verses 1-7, are diminished.

Clear eyesight when we are young may be something we take for granted. However, as we age the realization that our vision is not as sharp as it once was takes hold. “Readers” become standard fare for all intricate tasks. Our once keen laser sharp focus is now blurry and in need of help to restore its youthfulness. That restoration is found through glasses or some sort of rejuvenating surgery. Especially in the early stages of this degenerative eye problem we may be able to fake it and get by, but eventually we must relent and do something to correct the problem.

There is a parallel between physical and spiritual vision. “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” was written in the early 20th century. The hymn writer, Helen Lemmel, was strongly influenced by the artist and later little-known missionary, Lilias Trotter. Miss Trotter started off as an aspiring artist but early on felt a call from God to reach the lost. She began her ministry by rescuing prostitutes from the streets of London. Later she went to Africa, without missionary funding, and served for over forty years. While there she penned a poem that would greatly influence the writing of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.”  The poem was entitled “Focused: A Story and Song.” 

The poem centers around focusing one’s attentions fully and completely upon God. She writes that Satan knows that if a person uses all their powers of concentration on being led by God’s Spirit, they will have a great intensity and impact upon those to whom they are called to minister. Lilias Trotter, writing in a more formal use of the English language than we are accustomed, shares some timeless insights which could very easily have been written today but with a different accent. She writes: “Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the ‘good’ hiding the ‘best’ even more effectually than it could be hidden downright frivolity with its smothered heartache at its own emptiness.”

The “good” hiding the “best” leads us to emptiness.  Could this be true of us today especially as American Christians? Have we sought the “good” while missing the “best”? The chorus of the hymn, which we will be singing in worship this Sunday, says it best.

                Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face,                                                                                                                                        And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Keith Pate

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