Steady my Hand

When questions arise, and sufferings come.

When hurt is deep, and heart grows numb.

When I’m not sure where it all comes from --

(Assault from below, or God’s ‘test’ to be won?!)

Steady my hand on the plow of obedience.*

When the hope that I had lay buried in ash

Embers I was convinced were from God’s cache

Of kingdom dreams, an eternal purpose vast,

Yet now broken, discarded, its reality dashed.

Steady my hand on the plow of obedience.

When I’m tempted to doubt, to think ‘maybe, it’s You’

Who isn’t all good,  and I’m tempted to view

God as ‘letting me down”,  in this mutinous view.

(My affliction suggests this; yet, I cling to stay true.)

Steady my hand on the plow of obedience.

When my gaze on another in judgement would rest

When I’m drawn to think he is to blame in this test

And I’m tempted to curse one I know I should bless

(Even if his role truly falls short of what’s best),

Steady my hand on the plow of obedience.

When I’m longing to quit, to withdraw from the race,

To retreat (“It’s not worth it!) to a safe, easy place

Where escape in God’s ‘love’ can avoid the hard pace

(--Being winded is painful, out of breath a disgrace!--)

Steady my hand on the plow of obedience.

Steady my hands, Lord! Help me plow ahead.

And open my eyes, give me this view instead:

The path of obedience that Your Son first led—

On a Cross, In a Crowd, In Great Pain, Love that Bled

Steady my hand (as you comfort my heart) on the plow of obedience.

-Elaine Pratt

*With thanks to John Piper for this metaphor, used in his Pierced by the Word devotional.