October 20, 2020
For the joys and for the sorrows
The best and worst of times
For this moment, for tomorrow
For all that lies behind
Fears that crowd around me
For the failure of my plans
For the dreams of all I hope to be
The truth of what I am
For this I have Jesus
For this I have Jesus
For this I have Jesus, I have Jesus.
For the tears that flow in secret
In the broken times
For the moments of elation
Or the troubled mind
For all the disappointments
Or the sting of old regrets
All my prayers and longings
That seem unanswered yet
For the weakness of my body
The burdens of each day
For the nights of doubt and worry
When sleep has fled away
Needing reassurance
And the will to start again
A steely-eyed endurance
The strength to fight and win
For this I have Jesus
For this I have Jesus
For this I have Jesus, I have Jesus.
—Graham Kendrick1
This song was triggered by a line from a sermon. Bible teacher Charles Price was preaching at Spring Harvest in 1994, and illustrated some of the points in his talk by referring to an elderly Christian he knew. For many years his friend had this simple but profound saying that he would apply whatever came his way, whether challenge or tragedy: “For this I have Jesus.”
I was sitting on the platform, because I was leading worship in that meeting. As I listened, I began to see not only the point, but also the potential for a song. … It’s turned out to be one of those songs that encourage people who are going through difficulties, a formula to help them bring their problems to Christ instead of resorting to worrying, fear and anxiety and blaming other people—which is always what we tend to do when things go wrong.
We all lean on something, particularly when the hard times come. The question is the quality of what we are leaning on. Is it a substitute, a counterfeit, or is it the real thing? The Christian teaching is that we were never made to be simply independent of God; we were made for God, and to find fulfilment in a relationship with him. So without that we are incomplete and we haven’t fulfilled the purpose of our existence. …
But we don’t need Jesus just for the bad times. We need him in the good times, too—as the song points out. We need him to cope with our success. Success can tempt us to become presumptuous or imagine that somehow we’ve done something great all by ourselves—as opposed to it really coming from the grace of God. For those times we have Jesus, too, the Jesus who came into his world not to be served, but to serve, and whose greatest success appeared at the time to be a gigantic failure—the cross.—Graham Kendrick2
Someone whose anchor held through all the troubles that almost overwhelmed her, and the grief that she endured, and the storms that almost obscured her light was Fanny Crosby. She was a famous American poetess who became blind at six weeks of age through improper medical treatment. She’s often been called the queen of gospel songwriters. Before she went home to be with the Lord at the age of 95 in 1915, she had written more than 8,000 gospel hymns. Millions have been touched by the beauty of the words that flowed from her pen.
Fanny wrote a song called “Twill All Be Right at Last” on the theme of prayer. Sometimes when we pray for things, we don’t get the answers right away that we’re praying for, and then we start to get discouraged. Here is some encouragement by Fanny Crosby about praying and continuing to pray even though we don’t see the answer.
Pray on, pray on, O weary not,
Tho’ great thy conflict be;
Look bravely up, and trust in Him
Whose love abides with thee.
Remember how He led thee forth,
Thro’ toil and dangers past;
Tho’ yet unanswered is thy prayer,
It’ll all be right at last.
Pray on, pray on, with steadfast hope,
For thou shalt yet prevail;
“Ask what thou wilt, it shall be done,”
The promise cannot fail.
Cling firmly to the solid rock,
And hold the anchor fast;
The clouds will break, the light will come,
It’ll all be right at last.
We can trust that no matter what we face or how long it takes, everything we commit to the Lord in prayer will all be right at last.—Maria Fontaine
My first children’s choir director was a lady by the name of Carolyn Miller. She had one of the largest hearts for teaching kids to love music. ... It was the summer of 2001 that I heard the news that Ms. Carolyn was diagnosed with cancer in her hip. I can’t imagine the shock that the Millers felt during this time. But people from all over the country began to lift this woman up with a hope that she would be healed. It was the summer of 2003 when I learned that Ms. Carolyn’s treatment was not working as they hoped and the cancer had spread so fast that they had to amputate one of her legs. I will never forget this day for a few reasons.
First, I’ll never forget when I heard the news and how I felt such a deep sense of confusion. Why? Why would God do this to an incredibly godly woman, wife, and mother? Secondly, I remember God and I had a heart-to-heart. This 16-year-old boy was really struggling with how the God he loved and devoted his life to could allow this to happen. And thirdly, and most importantly, I remember God’s clear answer to all of my questions and doubt.
That very evening I was leading a revival at First Baptist Church in a small town of Fruitvale, Texas. There were only about 50 people there in that small country church. [The pastor] was sharing about how the difficulty in this life cannot always be explained and how we have to trust the Lord on the mountaintop as well as in the valley. Then he said this … “In my family,” he said, “we always had a phrase that we would share in good times and bad, ‘for this we have Jesus … for this we have Jesus.’”…
I went home that night and in the quietness of my bedroom penned these words,
For this we have Jesus,
For this we have the Lord.
For this we have Jesus and His Love forevermore.
We may never see the purpose, or know the reason why.
But for this we have Jesus,
For this we have the Lord.
… There is a misconception that those that put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ will then cease from any pain or struggle thereafter. For those who are children of God, as we look at the scars and bruises of this life, you know this to be far from the truth. We all face unexpected difficulties, pain, and loss in this life, and even though we do not fully understand it, God allows these sifted moments to strengthen and teach us more about Himself. And this unexplainable peace He promises comes not from the absence of conflict, but in our proximity to the Heavenly Father.
… So as we walk this life of joy and sorrow, light and darkness, new and old, and life and death … for this we have Jesus.—John Bolin
Published on Anchor October 2020. Read by Simon Peterson. Music by John Listen.
1 Copyright © 1994 Make Way Music, www.grahamkendrick.co.uk.
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