Needful for Thee

Annie Hawks (1836-1918), an American poet and gospel hymnist, wrote a number of well-known hymns with her pastor, Robert Lowry, contributing to several popular Sunday school hymnbooks. Hawks' hymns include: "I Need Thee Every Hour"; "Thine, Most Gracious Lord"; "Why Weepest Thou? Who Seekest Thou?"; "Full and Free Salvation" and "My Soul Is Anchored." 

Written in 1872, the hymn by which Hawks is most widely known, "I Need Thee Every Hour," is said to have been "translated into more foreign languages than any other modern hymn at the time of her death," according to Wikipedia. Hawks stated: "For myself, the hymn was prophetic rather than expressive of my own experiences, for it was wafted out to the world on the wings of love and joy, instead of under the stress of personal sorrow."

Lowry, who wrote the music, went on to say:  "I believe 'I Need Thee Every Hour' was the expression of Mrs. Hawks' own experience. It came to me in the form of five simple stanzas, to which I added the chorus to make it more serviceable. It inspired me at its first reading."

Verse 1

I need Thee every hour,
Most gracious Lord
No tender voice like Thine
Can peace afford

Chorus
I need Thee, O I need Thee,
Every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee!

Verse 2
I need Thee every hour,
Stay Thou near by;
Temptations lose their power
When Thou art nigh.

Chorus
I need Thee, O I need Thee,
Every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee!

Verse 3
I need Thee every hour,
In joy, or pain;
Come quickly and abide
Or life is vain.

Chorus
I need Thee, O I need Thee,
Every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee!

Verse 4
I need Thee every hour,
Teach me Thy will;
Thy promises so rich
In me fulfill.

Chorus
I need Thee, O I need Thee,
Every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee!

Verse 5
I need Thee every hour,
Most Holy One,
O make me Thine indeed,
Thou Blessed Son!

Chorus
I need Thee, O I need Thee,
Every hour I need Thee!
O bless me now, my Savior,

      I come to Thee!

*****

Romans 4 says, [5] But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
[6] Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
[7] Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

“When we talk about the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,’ we’re talking about the love, the joy, the peace, the longsuffering.

“We’re talking about appropriating into your experience the reality of what God’s given you in your position, your identity in Christ.

“Appropriating into your experience is closed to all but the needy heart. It’s available only to those who’ll say, ‘It’s not I but Christ.’

“When those two things—a conscious awareness of faith-trust in who you are and then a realization of your absolute need in every moment for it . . .  you need a lifetime of spiritual growth because, friend, it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work that process into the details of your life.

“That’s why Romans 7 is in Romans 7, not Romans 2 or 5. You’ve experienced this: You’re on the mountaintop and you got the ‘Joy, Joy, Joy,’ and then a little while later, you’re down in the cloud-filled doldrums, thinking, ‘I doubt I’ll ever see the mountaintop again.’

“And when you’re in those moments of need, that’s the moment to say, ‘You know, here’s a 'IT'S NOT I' experience! I’m down here because I’ve been trusting ME.’

“Instead of defining your situation by your problems, define them by who you are in Christ and look at the situation you’ve gotten into as an opportunity to GROW because that’s exactly what God’s grace is trying to get to.

*****

“I was at a Bible conference in Tennessee where a woman driving to the event was in a bad car wreck. She was injured quite severely and had a limb amputated and people asked, ‘Why?!’ But there was something in this lady’s inner man that gave her joy in spite of it all.

“You see, it’s ‘according to the riches of His grace.’ (Eph. 1:7) You can feel forgiven even when the circumstances don’t make out like you ought to. But you got to remember, no Believer ever fell into maturity overnight. This is a lifelong process of spiritual growth, of learning over and over, ‘It’s not I but Christ.’

“You take little baby steps at first and then you become a person who can walk. But it’s always, ‘Not I but Christ.’ It’s always seeing the riches that are mine in Him and becoming aware of my need of that. Seeing and needing brings us from a child who’s always meandering around to a responsible, specific, purposeful walk of faith. It’s called maturity; it’s called being an adult.

*****

“Colossians 2:10 says, ‘And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.’  But then look at chapter 4:12: ‘Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.’

“Wait a minute—I thought they were complete?! Why is Epaphras praying and laboring that they would BE complete?

“Paul says in Ephesians 1, ‘You’re accepted in the beloved.’ In II Corinthians 5:9, he says, ‘Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.’

“You say, ‘Wait a minute—I thought I was accepted!’ What Paul’s talking about is the difference between your standing and your state; your position in Christ and your practice in time; your identity in Him and then that identity living in your experience now.

“If you’re complete in Him, there’s nothing to make you MORE complete. All you need to do is appropriate the total completeness already there and bring it into your experience and have the practical, experiential possession of what already belongs to you.

“That is to experience the joy of, ‘I am forgiven.’ Whew, that’s a wonderful thing. Let that inform your mind so that your emotions know how to relate to REALITY.

“Now, there’s two things you have to have to appropriate anything. One, you got to know about it and you can never know your identity if you don’t study the Bible rightly divided. Dispensational Bible study is the most practical thing you’ll ever have in your life because it gives you the ability to know who you really are.

“The other component is you not only have to know it, you have to be aware of your need of it. That’s because you’ll never reach out and appropriate into your experience something unless you know that you really need it. That’s what was happening to Paul in Romans 7.

“He’ll say, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ and you say, ‘What?! How’d he get out of Romans 6 into that so fast?!’

“In Romans 7:14, Paul says, ‘For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.’ You lying rascal! You just told me that you’re complete in Christ, you’re dead with Him, buried with Him, raised with Him! How’d you get out of chapter 6 so fast?!

“Paul, in Romans 7, is not identifying himself as God does. He slipped back into identifying with how HE identified himself. But then he says in one little phrase in Galatians 2:20: ‘It’s not I but Christ.’

“You got to have those ‘It’s not I’ moments where you become aware of your utter bankruptcy so that the riches of Christ become THE THING that’s the need of your heart."