growing

"Let me then be always growing,
Never, never standing still
Listening, learning, better knowing
Thee and Thy most blessed will
'til I reach Thy Holy place
Daily let me grow in grace."

These words have been thumping in my heart for nearly a week solid. They were written on a piece of paper given to me over a year ago...and now, just now, I have been experiencing the ever-truth of them.

The words were by themselves on that paper without author or even quotation marks...with only brief, written wishes that it would come to mean much to me.

As I have recently discovered, these words were written by Frances Ridley Havergal, the same poet and hymnist who wrote, "Take My Life and Let it Be."

The above words are penned as the fifth stanza in a poem appropriately titled, "Growing". As I read the poem, I realized the seriousness of the prayer being prayed.

The first stanza speaks of the recognition and request of helplessness and help. Actually, they all speak so. Endurance. Discipline. Vision. Sanctification. But as Bible school's great principle of repetition is evident , the growth in God's grace is the underlying and overall end. I am so pleased to read the poem, not from some doctrinal or analytical viewpoint, but as the read-er, so the pray-er. The entire poem is relational! Simply put are the needs of the body, mind, soul, and spirit. And simply given is the grace.

Below is the entire poem:

Unto him that hath, Thou givest
Ever 'more abundantly'
Lord, I live because Thou livest
Therefore give more life to me
Therefore speed me in the race
Therefore let me grow in grace


Deepen all Thy work, O Master
Strengthen every downward root
Only do Thou ripen faster
More and more, Thy pleasant fruit
Purge me, Prune me, self-abase
Only let me grow in grace


Jesus, grace for grace outpouring
Show me ever greater things
Raise me higher, sunward soaring
Mounting as on eagle's wings
By the brightness of Thy face
Jesus, let me grow in grace


Let me grow by sun and shower
Every moment water me
Make me really, hour by hour
More and more conformed to Thee
That Thy loving eye may trace
Day by day, my growth in grace


Let me then be always growing
Never, never standing still
Listening, learning, better knowing
Thee and Thy most blessed will
Till I reach Thy Holy Place
Daily let me grow in grace

                          -Frances Ridley Havergal


hope this puts a "spring in your step"  ::s::