The Prayer Answering God

I stand in a world where there’s nothing my own,
Where the lightest event is beyond my control;

I stand in a world where there’s nothing my own,
Where the lightest event is beyond my control;
But to Him that is Ruler supreme and alone
I gladly resign, for I know Him, the whole.
How pleasant, ‘mid changes and chances unthought,
On His wisdom and love to disburthen our care;
And to know, that the God who disposes our lot
Is a God that will hear and will answer our prayer!

There are those that I love, far away from me now,
And roaming through danger by shore and by sea;
And what were my feelings, my Father, if Thou
Wert less than Almighty for them and for me?
I cannot command the wild winds to be still;
I cannot compel the dark waves to forbear;
But One is above them who can, and who will:
In Him I am strong, for he answereth prayer.

Ah me! I gaze round me – and what are the smiles
And the looks that give life all its zest and its soul?
Mortality claims them, and sternly reviles
Affection’s vain struggle against her control.
I own it, I feel it; yet, humbled and awed,
I still dare to love them, all frail as they are;
For I know we are both in the hands of our God
The Father of Jesus, the Hearer of prayer.

Then here be my resting-place! here will I sit
Secure ‘mid the shiftings of time and event;
For Fate has no power but what He may permit,
And the Hand that must take is the same that hath lent.
On His wisdom and goodness I calmly rely;
Whate’er he assigns He can aid me to bear:
He knows what is good for me better than I,
And will give it, I hope, in despite of my prayer.

Henry Francis Lyte