What is in your hand?

Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry,
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.

Chorus
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry:
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.

Let me at Thy throne of mercy, find a sweet relief;
kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief.

Trusting only in Thy merit, would I seek Thy face.
Heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by Thy grace.

Chorus
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry:
While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by.

Frances Jane Crosby or Franny Crosby as she is well known is the writer of this famous hymn. This prolific lyricist was born into a poor family. Then as an infant she contracted a cold with inflammation in her eyes, the local doctor was not available so the man who came to treat her prescribed a treatment that ended up being a botched procedure that resulted in her permanent blindness. She never knew her father who died when she was one year old. Her mother and grandmother raised her and not only was it tough being blind, but being raised by women in a society at that time was not easy. In spite of all that would have caused some people to give up and throw in the towel, Fanny persevered, was educated and later married only to have her only child die in infancy.

But she believed in what she wrote. “Pass me not O gentle Savior” was written at one of her trials in life. Here was a woman that had every right to say “Why me Lord?” and perhaps she did at times. And yet she was able to pour her heart out in lyrics that would speak and minister to the hearts of men and women over a hundred years later. Here was a woman who became a lobbyist in Washington DC for the support of education for the blind.

Fanny Crosby a blind woman did not let her handicap stop her from fulfilling God’s purpose in her life. She could not use her eyes, so she used her mind. A mind so anointed by God that she would have as many as twelve hymns in her mind at a time, then dictating them one after the other for someone to write them down on paper.

In Exodus chapter 4, when Moses express some doubt when God told him that He was going to use him to free His people; God asked Moses “What is in your hand?” and Moses answered “A staff.” And we all know how God used what was in the hand of Moses. It was all he had, but it was all God needed. Fanny Crosby gave God all she had and He used it to reach the world.

What do you have? It may seem to you as nothing much. You may say, but you don’t know all that I have been through…give it to God…that’s right, all of it and trust Him to use it for His Glory!

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