Tuesday, January 12, 2010

If I serve Thee...

From Lying Awake:

If I serve Thee in hopes of Paradise
deny me Paradise.
If I serve Thee in fear of hell,
condemn me to hell.
But if I love Thee for love of Thyself
then grant me Thyself.

3 comments:

Diane Marie Hall said...

beautiful....

Ike said...

I suppose there are some persons whose minds naturally incline towards the doctrine of free-will. I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the doctrines of sovereign grace. Sometimes, when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude that God has never let me act as they have done! I have thought, if God had left me alone, and had not touched me by His grace, what a great sinner I should have been! I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have stopped at any vice or folly, if God had not restrained me. I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners, if God had let me alone. I cannot understand the reason why I am saved, except upon the ground that God would have it so. I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a partaker of Divine grace. If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have His will with me, and that will was that I should be with Him where He is, and should share His glory. I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of Him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down into the pit.

Charles Spurgeon

Suzanne Marie DeWitt said...

Saved by grace, through faith...

Amen.