If Not For You

[breathe]

If Not For You

Ephesians 2:12; Psalm 51:11; Psalm 143:7b
(I was) separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
Do not cast me away from Your presence
and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Do not hide Your face from me,
or I will become like those who go down to the pit.

Where would I be without Your love;
where would I be without Your faithfulness?

I would lie in open spaces,
with the sun upon my brow.
There would be no place to lay my head;
a newspaper would be my blanket,
and the cold winter’s night would be my master.

Perhaps I would look for love in a bottle,
or in puncture marks on my arms.
The weight of the cares of this world
would be scars on my wrists,
if You were not by my side.

The yoke of self-effort,
would make my breathing difficult,
and a cloud of condemnation
would reign in my mind.

Who would be my comforter,
when my heart cries in the birth-pains of deliverance?
I would have no mid-wife,
no one to comfort me in the day of my pain,
if You were not there my Lord.

O my Lord,
take not Your Holy Spirit from me,
and let not fear reign in my heart.

For I do have a Father;
one who stands by me in the day of trouble-
the one who called me from the womb,
and laid His seal upon me.
See it is written on my forehead
and my hands- “Holy to the Lord”.

The stamp of my Father is on my heart,
and His Spirit testifies with mine
that I am a child of God.
My Father is the roof over my head,
protecting me from the blazing sun by day.

His care is a blanket and a warm bed
on a cold winder’s night.
He holds my hand when sickness gathers about me,
and with a sweep of His arm it vanishes into the pit.

He takes the burdens off my back,
and with His yoke upon me I breathe easy
and run like the wind.
For His yoke is a sail for the wind of His Spirit,
which carries me to new heights of praise
and adoration for my King.

My physician comforts me
when my heart cries out for surgery.
And His gentle hands remove the dead tissue when it is ripe,
and I feel the warmth of His healing balm.

O my heart sings to You my Father,
and my Spirit rejoices in Your love.

I rest in the shadow of Your wing.