A Martyr's Grace

Lord, I give up my own purposes and plans, all my own desires and hopes and ambitions and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee, to be Thine forever. I hand over to Thy keeping all of my friendships; all the people whom I love are to take a second place in my heart. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Work out Thy whole will in my life, at any cost, now and forever. To me to live is Christ. Amen.

Elizabeth Alden Stam wrote those words when she was 19. At the age of 28 she was martyred for her service to the Lord in Miaosheo, China in 1934.

I'm 19. Can I make the same pledge that Betty did and really mean it? I want faith like that more than anything.

Therefore I've been challenged to think about how much of myself I'm really giving to God. Can I say that he has all of me, without compromise? What, or who, do I hold onto instead of first finding fulfilment in him?

I also really like this poem by another China missionary named E. H. Hamilton. He wrote it to commemorate the martyrdom of one of his colleagues:

Afraid? Of What?
To feel the spirit's glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid - of that?

Afraid? Of What?
Afraid to see the Savior's face,
To hear His welcome, and to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid - of that?

Afraid? Of What?
A flash, a crash, a pierced heart;
Darkness, light, O Heaven's art!
A wound of His a counterpart!
Afraid - of that?

Afraid? Of What?
To do by death what life could not -
Baptise with blood a stony plot,
Till souls shall blossom from the spot?
Afraid - of that?