If I Stand

Happy New Year!

I heard this song recently and though it's an oldie, the words really resonated in my heart.  "Stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the giver of all good things..."  Rich had a way with words.  How many of us can relate with this competition for our allegiance?

This is our first week back in the CSBS and the students are studying Hosea.  In lectures, Megan Burmester, who was teaching Hosea, called God's love "a love that tolerates no rival."  Pretty grateful that the same God who desires our undivided affection has grace when we screw up and go after the stuff of earth rather than him.  I need that grace today.  

Anyway, here's the lyrics and a link to the song on youtube.  Hope you are encouraged by this song!

There's more that rises in the morning
Than the sun
And more that shines in the night
Than just the moon
It's more than just this fire here
That keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger
Than this room

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiment
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't, let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home

There's more that dances on the prairies
Than the wind
More that pulses in the ocean
Than the tide
There's a love that is fiercer
Than the love between friends
More gentle than a mother's
When her baby's at her side

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home