You have all my future in your hands, in your hands.
I bid you take over all my life, Lord.
My dreams, aspirations, all my best Jesus, Lord.
My hopes, my fears, in your hands.
My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
This song (VIP 214) was written by the late Rev. Dr. Fiztroy Allan Kirton, a Trinidadian by birth and a confirmed Methodist. Under the mentorship of Rev. J. B. Broomes, he experienced salvation and accepted the call of Christ to ministry. In preparation he entered United Theological Seminary, Jamaica. Dr. Kirton was a gifted and dedicated Christian servant. His vision and administrative talents provided strategic direction to many organizations including the Independent West Indian Commission and others based in Ghana, the Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, India, Switzerland, Belgium, and Thailand. He was a founding member of the Wesley Singers, Barbados.
The first verse speaks to Dr. Kirton’s depth of commitment and surrender. Whatever the future held, including the dreams and aspirations, the hopes and fears he had for himself or for others, was all in God’s hands. God could be trusted. Hence, it meant a conscious effort to place them in God’s hands. The second verse helps us to rely in confidence on the strength and guidance of God to be with us through the “fray” and “way” of life. Verse three challenges us to see that God has given us ‘many duties to help shape the world’ we live in but also that without God in Christ we can do nothing. It calls for us to depend on the power that only God can provide for the tasks he gives.
The opportunity to make and renew our covenant with God in Christ is before us once again. As we stand with mixed emotions on the portal of the year 2021, let us recommit to exercise our faith in the ever-faithful God by placing into God’s hands our “dreams and aspirations”, our “hopes and fears’, not only for ourselves but also for all people. It is only in God’s hands life makes sense. Interestingly, it does not stop there it also encourages to ‘keep praying for our land’. Our prayers are not just words but action, so the verse goes on to encourage us to labour with others to make the world a better place. My friends, Christ still has many services for his people to do and he will surely equip us. Let us, therefore, with confidence place our todays and our tomorrows, our joys, and our sorrows in God’s hands.
My colleagues, Stacia, James, Barbara, Tyrone, and Telford, and their families, join me in praying for you God’s continued faithfulness for 2021.
Have a blessed week!
Your pastor and friend,
Mark S. Christmas