In 1875 William Ernest Henley wrote the poem that we have come to know as Invictus. Its final stanza reads:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
These words have inspired many, yet they are misleading. While it is true that God gives us a free will to make choices concerning things below us, we are totally dependent upon God for everything that is good.
Paul Speratus in the hymn “Salvation Unto Us Has Come” speaks this reality. The third stanza begins:
It was a false, misleading dream
That God His Law had given
That sinners could themselves redeem
And by their works gain heaven.
Indeed this great hymn says it all in the first two lines.
Salvation unto us has come
By God’s free grace and favor;
Without God’s daily blessings of body and soul, I would be nothing other than the captain of the sinking ship of my soul.
Prayer: Father in heaven, let me always recognize that I have my existence in You for you have created me, body and soul, and you sustain me every day with the bread of life. Amen.
God’s richest blessings in Christ,
Pastor Philip Quardokus
Download a pdf of all the Lenten devotions here.
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