If I Gained The World

Good News – July/August 2022 – Grace & Truth Magazine

If I Gained The World

If I gained the world, but lost the Savior, Were my life worth living for a day? Could my yearning heart find rest and comfort In the things that soon must pass away? If I gained the world, but lost the Savior, Would my gain be worth the lifelong strife? Are all earthly pleasures worth comparing For a moment with a Christ-filled life?
Had I wealth and love in fullest measure, And a name revered both far and near, Yet no hope beyond, no harbor waiting, Where my storm-tossed vessel I could steer; If I gained the world, but lost the Savior, Who endured the cross and died for me, Could then all the world afford a refuge, Whither, in my anguish, I might flee? O what emptiness! – without the Savior ’Mid the sins and sorrows here below! And eternity, how dark without Him! Only night and tears and endless woe! What, though I might live without the Savior, When I come to die, how would it be? O to face the valley’s gloom without Him! And without Him all eternity!
O the joy of having all in Jesus! What a balm the broken heart to heal! Ne’er a sin so great, but He’ll forgive it, Nor a sorrow that He does not feel! If I have but Jesus, only Jesus, Nothing else in all the world beside – O then everything is mine in Jesus; For my needs and more He will provide. —Anna Olander (1861–1939)

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” —John 6:35-40 NKJV