In recent weeks I have been learning to trust in the Lord
for the where, how and what for of my life, I have been praying for weeks as to
some insight into what reasons the Lord has timed and arranged certain things.
I started doing a great deal of study into what it means to be under the banner
of Christ. What it means to carry my cross and follow him, and how that looks
on a daily basis. It was while doing this study that I pulled out my great aunts
journal from the early 1920’s. This great aunt of mine was a very godly woman
who was always in the word. It was then that I fell upon the page of her notes
from Spurgeons last sermon in the Tabernacle in London, although I had read
these words before, I read them again with a sense of eye opening awe, of who Christ
is and of the magnitude of how awesome it is that I get to, no, have the privileged
to, wear the livery of Christ. I know that anyone who reads these words will
see it too.
“If you wear the livery of Christ, you will find him so meek
and lowly of heart that you will find rest unto your souls. He is the most
magnanimous of captains. There never was his like the choicest of princes. He
is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle. When the wind blows
cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill. The heaviest end of the cross
lies ever on his shoulders. If he bids us carry a burden, he carries it also.
If there is anything that is gracious, generous, kind, and tender, yea lavish
and superabundant in love, you always find it in him. His service is life,
peace, and joy. Oh, that you would enter on it at once! God help you to enlist
under the banner of JESUS CHRIST!” Spurgeon
It was from these words that I started out of nowhere singing
an old hymn written by Mrs Annie Hawks in 1872. She too had been filled with
the sense of nearness to the Master. She said that while thinking this she
wondered how one could live without Him, either in joy or pain. These words, “I
Need Thee Every Hour,” were ushered into her mind, and she wrote that “the
thought at once took full possession of her” it was not until her husband died
that she really appreciated the words the Lord permitted her to write. The lines
yet simple are so true and so powerfully beautiful. Here they are:
I need Thee
every hour, most gracious Lord;
No tender
voice like Thine can peace afford.
I need Thee
every hour, stay Thou nearby;
Temptations
lose their power when Thou art nigh.
I need Thee
every hour, in joy or pain;
Come quickly
and abide, or life is in vain.
I need Thee
every hour; teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich
promises in me fulfil.
I need Thee
every hour, most Holy One;
O make me
Thine indeed, Thou blessèd Son.
All of these
words are so beautiful, but the refrain is so beautiful and it is my prayer;
I need Thee,
O I need Thee;
Every hour I
need Thee;
O bless me
now, my Saviour,
I come to
Thee.
As I closed
the journal, a piece of paper fell out on it were the words of a simple poem
about prayer. Here is the poem, it is by anon, but I really like it and it
links in nicely with the topic above. It is about the nearness that bot I and
Mrs Hawk felt.
Prayer is so
simple,
It is like
quietly opening a door
And slipping
into the very presence of God.
There in the
stillness
To listen
for is voice
Perhaps to
petition,
Or only to
listen;
It matters
not;
Just to be
there
In his presence
Is prayer! - anon
