Perfect Peace (by Annie Johnson Flint)

Perfect Peace

by Annie Johnson Flint

 

I do not look back

 God knows the fruitless efforts,

The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets;

I leave them all with Him who blots the record,

And mercifully forgives and then forgets.

I do not look forward

God sees all the future,

The road that, short or long, will lead me Home.

And He will face with me its every trial,

And bear for me the burdens that may come.

I do not look around me

Then would fears assail me,

So wild the tumult of earth’s restless seas,

So dark the world, so filled with woe and evil,

 So vain the hope of comfort or of ease.

I do not look in

For then am I most wretched,

My self hath not on which to stay my trust.

Nothing I see save failures and shortcomings,

And weak endeavors crumbling into dust.

But I look up –

 Into the face of Jesus.

For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;

And there is joy and love and light for darkness,

And Perfect Peace, and every hope fulfilled.