{"id":4778,"date":"2010-08-27T14:35:21","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T18:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/example.org\/just-as-i-am"},"modified":"2010-08-27T14:35:21","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T18:35:21","slug":"just-as-i-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/just-as-i-am.html","title":{"rendered":"Just As I Am"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hymns “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” <\/em>(John 6:37 NIV).<\/p>\n

I love singing the\u00a0new contemporary worship songs at our church, but whenever I get alone with God those aren’t the songs that fill my mind. In my times of private devotion it’s those old hymns that begin to ring in my head.<\/p>\n

On a recent study retreat I was having trouble hearing from God. I felt a profound\u00a0sense of worthlessness come over me. As I considered the calling on my life, I suggested to God that he\u00a0might look for someone else, someone with more ability to do my job.<\/p>\n

As I wallowed in self pity and doubt, I began to hum a tune, “Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me…” I sensed God’s presence. He spoke to me through those old lyrics. My calling\u00a0doesn’t depend\u00a0on my ability. God will supply the ability if I will\u00a0just come\u00a0as I am.<\/p>\n

\"Elliott_c2\" The lyrics to “Just As I Am” were written by an invalid named Charlotte Eliott\u00a0in 1835. After a dark night wrestling with feelings of uselessness, she began to question even the reality of her spiritual life. She awoke the next morning and taking pen and paper in hand, she poured out her heart. She wrote words aimed at\u00a0conquering the spiritual warfare in her soul. She reminded herself that God had called her to come just as she was.<\/p>\n

One hundred years later, in 1934, a young man named Billy went forward at a revival led by the evangelist Mordecai Ham. The altar call song was “Just As I Am.” The Rev. Graham was so marked by this song that it became the standard decision song for all his crusades. He even named his autobiography after it.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing how a young crippled girl’s obedience continues to affect us today. Living to 82 years of age, she never let\u00a0her\u00a0disability keep her from following God. She wrote over 150 hymns.<\/p>\n

Singing the\u00a0lyrics to “Just As I Am” and letting them encourage\u00a0our souls, we are reminded that God has never been interested in our\u00a0ability.<\/p>\n

What He asks for is our availability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37 NIV). I love singing the\u00a0new contemporary worship songs at our church, but whenever I get alone with God those aren’t the songs that fill my mind. In my times of private devotion it’s those old hymns that begin to ring in my head. On<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061,1,2062],"tags":[],"location":[],"class_list":["post-4778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion","category-uncategorized","category-weblogs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4778"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=4778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}