Blessed Be Your Name
By Matt Redman, 2010
Blessed Be Your Name,
In the land that is plentiful,
Where Your streams of abundance flow,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed Be Your name,
When I'm found in the desert place,
Though I walk through the wilderness,
Blessed Be Your name.
Every blessing You pour out,
I'll turn back to praise,
When the darkness closes in, Lord,
Still I will say . . .
Blessed be Your name,
Blessed be Your name,
On the road marked with suffering,
Though there's pain in the offering,
Blessed
be Your name.
Blessed Be God
By Saint John of the Cross, 1545
The love of God does not consist in mere
words, but in sorrow and bitter sufferings, in being despised by the world,
abandoned by all creatures, and, it may seem, at times, in the withdrawal of
even our Creator's favor. In spite of all these trials, the Christian's courage
must be firm; he must not complain, not lose heart; he should imitate the
martyr who, while they were disemboweling him and tearing the flesh from his
bones with iron hooks, had no words on his lips but the Name of Jesus, nor any
thought in his heart but “Blessed be God.” He was willing and resolute to bear
even greater torments, if it pleased God to send them. Affliction, when borne
for Christ, is both a gift and a grace, which he only bestows on his favorites
. . .
Let us strive to be martyrs by patience, for
though our pains may be less severe, they yet last longer. We ought not to wish
for a happy life, but prefer a martyrdom on earth; it was our Lord's portion,
and he wishes ours to be the same. Some have died as martyrs for the faith, and
others have gone to heaven without doing so, but we must all be martyrs of
love, if we wish to arrive there. This love must be a torment and a pain for
us, because by the offense given to God by ourselves and others; it must
deprive us of all comfort in life, and load our shoulders with the cross. It
must make us embrace hardships and overcome them by the burning charity God has
kindled in us. This love so carries us out of ourselves that it makes us
perfectly insensible to dishonor, as wine takes away the reason of a drunkard.
Like all strong affection, it makes a man forget himself; and care only for his
Beloved, who in this case is God himself, and his most holy will . . . We cannot fully realize the strength of the
love which tortures us here, and will console us in the next world. Let us
believe what God has told us of it, and walk in the faith of his Word, for we
have still a long journey before us.
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