Thy Will Be Done

There's a song we sang at church on Sunday that I wanted to share with you. I looked it up and found it was written by a woman in England who spent most of her life as an invalid, and who often wondered what God could do through her because of her inability to do anything "significant."

It's interesting how God often does amazing things through people who have been isolated from the busy-ness of normal, everyday life: Joseph spent 13 years in prison before assuming a 2nd-in-command position over the known world, Moses spent 40 years in the desert before being called out to lead Israel out of Egypt, and Daniel was taken captive as a young boy from his home in Jerusalem to Babylon, where he became a top advisor in 3 successive kingdoms.

And some people live in isolation their entire lives, and we won't know the scope of God's work through them until we get to heaven. Charlotte Elliott was an invalid for most of her adult life, but God used her to write this hymn, and the hymn, "Just As I Am." What is that saying, It's not your ability, but your availability that determines what God can do through you.

My God and Father! while I stray
Far from my home in life’s rough way,
Oh! teach me from my heart to say,“Thy will be done!”
Though dark my path, and sad my lot,
Let me “be still,” and murmur not,
Or breathe the prayer divinely taught,
“Thy will be done!”

What though in lonely grief I sigh,
For friends beloved, no longer nigh,
Submissive still would I reply,
“Thy will be done!”

If Thou shouldst call me to resign
What most I prize, it ne’er was mine;
I only yield Thee what was Thine;
“Thy will be done!”

Should pining sickness waste away,
My life in premature decay,
My Father! still I strive to say,
“Thy will be done!”

If but my fainting heart be blest
With Thy sweet Spirit for its guest,
My God! to Thee I leave the rest--
“Thy will be done!”

Renew my will from day to day,
Blend it with Thine, and take away
All now that makes it hard to say,
“Thy will be done!”

Then when on earth I breathe no more
The prayer oft mixed with tears before,
I’ll sing upon a happier shore,
“Thy will be done!”

Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871)


"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen" Ephesians 3:20-21