FRANCES A. MOSHER
Pianist
Christ Congregation
Dallas, Texas
NO OTHER PLEA
My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device nor creed;
I trust the Ever-living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.
Enough for me that Jesus saves,
This ends my fear and doubt;
A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He’ll never cast me out.
My heart is leaning on the Word,
The written Word of God,
Salvation by my Savior’s name,
Salvation through His blood.
My great Physician heals the sick,
The lost He came to save;
For me His precious blood He shed,
For me His life He gave.
Refrain:
I need no other argument,
I need no other plea;
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.
—Lidie H. Edmunds, 19th Century
Our family has recently been confronted by several major problems. Ideally, I would now report that our rock-solid trust in God has completely eliminated fearful hours and churning stomachs. I wish I could write that each and every time one or another of our problems—or the whole combined crush of them—has entered my mind, my immediate response has been to turn to the Lord with a scripturally-based prayer rather than frantically wracking my brain yet once again for a clever human solution. I have frequently responded to such thoughts with some kind of prayer, or at least a reminder to myself that God is sovereign and that He holds the solutions to our dilemmas, but there have also been many times when purposeful prayer seemed more struggle than I could manage just then.
God has been faithful, anyway.
Gradually we are seeing God overcome many of the difficulties which had seemed so overwhelming only a short time before. He has answered—often before we prayed, or when we weren’t sure what or how to pray. It has been a strengthening experience to be reminded that in His wisdom and timing He can and will provide solutions to our temporal problems. Because of His sovereignty, omniscience, omnipotence, and grace, we can have peace—a “resting place”—in the midst of earthly trials.
But earthly peace and rest are ours only because the Lord Jesus first provided eternal rest for our sin-battered souls. Just as His recent intervention in our earthly difficulties has been based on God’s character and efforts rather than our own, so the securing of our eternal peace with God is based, not on our faithfulness, but on His. Our faithfulness would ultimately fail; my own ups and downs in the midst of temporal problems are enough to convince me on that point! How amazingly good it is of the Father that our eternal salvation—our “resting place”—lies firmly based on the finished cross-work of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. How amazingly gracious He has been in providing us with an objective record of this fact in His written Word. How kind He is to overlook our shifting and deceptive feelings and emotions in such a crucial matter as where we will spend eternity. How worthy of our praise and thanksgiving He is that He has provided the resting place for our faith!
“My Faith Has Found a Resting Place” first appeared in its present form in Songs of Joy and Gladness in 1891. The composer of “Norse Air,” the tune to which the hymn is customarily set, is unknown, and little is known about the author of the words, Lidie H. Edmunds.1 However, one who had so clearly understood and received the gospel of grace, as evidenced by the hymn’s lyrics, will surely be one whom we shall meet in heaven. Perhaps she will then share with us the circumstances which led her to write this wonderful hymn of grace!
Endnotes
1Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace. (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1990), 188.