I Am Thine - Advent Birmingham, Leif Bondarenko

scripture and prayer reflection

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Click HERE to listen to the song on Spotify

Lyrics

Help me, O Lord, my strength and rock

Lo, at the door I hear death knock

Uplift thine arm once pierced for me

That conquered death and set me free

Yet if thy voice in life’s midday

Recalls my soul, then I obey

In faith and hope, earth I resign

Secure of heaven, for I am thine

I am thine, O I am thine

What sweet comfort, I am thine

I am held by a hand both strong and kind

What sweet comfort, I am thine

My pains increase, haste to console

For fear and woe seize body and soul

Death is at hand, my senses fail

My tongue is dumb, now Christ prevail

Lo, Satan strains to snatch his prey

I feel his grasp, must I give way?

He harms me not, I fear no loss

For here I lie beneath thy cross

I am thine, O I am thine

What sweet comfort, I am thine

I am held by a hand both strong and kind

What sweet comfort, I am thine

My God, My Lord, healed by thy hand

Upon the earth once more I stand

Let sin no more rule over me

My mouth shall sing alone to thee

Though now delayed my hour will come

Involved, perchance, in deeper gloom

But let it come, with joy I’ll rise

And bear my yoke straight to the skies

I am thine, O I am thine

What sweet comfort, I am thine

I am held by a hand both strong and kind

What sweet comfort, I am thine

O what sweet comfort, I am thine

Forever comfort, I am thine

Daniel 3:14-18

14 Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? 15 Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?”

16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Philippians 1:18b-24

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

Reflection

When faced with trials it can be easy to slip into a belief that if we pray harder or somehow have more faith, then God will do as we ask and save us, removing whatever is difficult or painful. There’s a reason why many health/wealth gospels preach exactly that - Don’t have the answer you want from God? Pray more. Believe more. Give more.

But the problem with the “pray harder, believe more” gospel is that it tries to turn God into an easily manipulated vending machine. Want that job, that spouse, that car? Pray more, and He’ll give it to you. Don’t want to be sick, to be sad, to fight anymore? Believe enough and He’ll take it away. In trying to interact with God in this way, what we’re really serving is our own appetites — it becomes all about what gives me a happy and comfortable and purposeful life, rather than about His kingdom and glory. Our relationship becomes centered on manipulating an unwilling God to help us rather than trusting a loving God to know what He is doing, even in the hardest things in our lives.

Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah — better known by their Chaldean names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego — were in a difficult position. They wanted to be faithful to God, but were facing extreme pressure to serve and worship foreign idols. In this situation, they couldn’t just pray harder and believe more to get themselves out of trouble — it was their faithfulness that was getting them into trouble in the first place! When threatened by Nebuchadnezzar, they declared that their God was able to save them from the fire, but they did not presume to predict that He would. They left space for God to be God, and to do as He saw fit. Whether martyred or miraculously saved, they would continue to trust Him.

Ulrich Zwingli was facing the uncertainty of plague when he penned the lyrics used in this song. In ministering to the sick, he himself contracted the disease, and was confronted by the very real likelihood of his own death. As the stanzas progress, we see his wrestle and commit himself into God’s hands, trusting in His sovereignty and control in all things. In the same way as Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Zwingli entrusted himself to God, whether God chose to save him from suffering and death or not.

We too are called to let God be God. We can and should ask Him for help. But we must guard against a false gospel of manipulation, and look to the hand “both strong and kind” in trust. He may not give us what we want, or even think we need, but He will carry us through no matter what happens. It is not so much trusting that He will save us from whatever we are facing, but trusting Him.

Take some time to reflect on your own life. When things don’t go as you’d like, do you find it easy to slip into a manipulation mindset of trying to work harder to get God to listen? What makes it hard to trust Him when outcomes are uncertain? Sit with the following, part of a prayer written by Cardinal John Newman:

I will trust Him...If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.

What is hardest in this prayer? What is it about that that feels hard to surrender to God? Talk with God about what comes up.