This hymn was sung to us by the dear believer who had terminal cancer whose eyes were fixed firmly on the Lord not on the personal situation. This believer was an absolute surrender to the Lord and obtained surpassing peace in the Lord just by looking at His face. This very hymn became this person very reality...
This morning, struggling with my personal situation, I searched for this hymn hoping to touch and enter the same experience... What a sweet re-directing reminder for a weary and trouble soul not to look for a light in the the outward places, in the darkness, in ourselves, in wish for more peaceful circumstances but to turn our eyes upon Him... for there's light for a look at the Saviour...
We sometimes play this at my congregation, and I love it! I think many young people (such as myself) ignore the old hymns because they're not as upbeat and fun, or as emotionally priming as more modern contemporary Christian music. Yet everytime I visit them I'm astounded by how deep and biblical they often are, and they are so beautiful. I pray that we don't ever abandon the hymns.
I sang the chorus of this hymn to my dad in the midst of his Alzheimer’s.
As I sang it at his bedside when there was no evidence of lucidity. I always knew that the truth of this Him would break through the forgotten and the loss. Last night I was reminded that in my own hurt, the only answer is to turn my eyes upon Jesus.
I was introduced to Christ by a co-worker of mine. Ever since attending small home meetings, we have sung the song a few times as a group. This is such a beautiful hymn! We have to open our hearts and arms to invite Christ into us.
A friend of mine lost her job. Her mother is sick, My friend loves God so much . And this time she's praying to God for help. I stand with her in prayer deprived of sleep. I have done all I can as a human being to help her. But nothing works. So I remembered this song....
I learnt the chorus as a kid at Sunday School but never heard or seen the verses to the song or who wrote it. In this materialistic world this is the most powerful antidote to greed, covetousness and greed. Love the tune and the words.
I have always been interested in the origin of the hymns; what inspired the author, what experiences and situations were going on when The Lord gave the hymn, etc.
I had heard a little of the author of this hymn, I searched and found out the following:
"Biography
Helen Howarth Lemmel was born in England in 1863, into the home of a Wesleyan minister who immigrated to America when Helen was a child. She loved music, and her parents provided the best vocal teachers they could find. Eventually Helen returned to Europe to study vocal music in Germany. In time, she married a wealthy European, but he left her when she became blind, and Helen struggled with multiple heartaches during midlife. At age 55, Helen heard a statement that deeply impressed her: "So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will see that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness."
“I stood still, ” Helen later said, “and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but nonetheless dictated by the Holy Spirit. ” Pastor Doug Goins of Palo Alto, California, and his parents, Paul and Kathryn Goins, both 82, of Sun City, Arizona, knew Helen in Seattle. “she was advanced in years and almost destitute, but she was an amazing person, ” said Doug. “She made a great impression on me as a junior high child because of her joy and enthusiasm. Though she was living on government assistance in a sparse bedroom, whenever we’d ask how she was doing, she would reply, ‘I’m doing well in the things that count. ’” One day, the Goins invited her to supper. “We had never entertained a blind person before, ” recalled Kathryn, “and it was interesting. Despite her infirmities, she was full of life. ”
“She was always composing hymns, ” said Kathryn. “She had no way of writing them down, so she would call my husband at all hours and he’d rush down and record them before she forgot the words. ” Helen had a small plastic keyboard by her bed. There she would play, sing and cry. “One day, God is going to bless me with a great heavenly keyboard, ” she’d say. “I can hardly wait! ” Helen Lemmel, who wrote nearly 500 hymns during her lifetime, died in Seattle in 1961, 13 days before her 98th birthday."
I recently spent a couple of days at a spa getaway just to be by myself and think things through. My husband passed away almost 3 years ago and I had yet to move into acceptance. This tune kept playing over and over in my mind but started with “Cast your cares upon Jesus. I rarely pray for myself because I feel guilty and selfish, thinking I should always pray for others. Cast your cares upon Jesus. I did. I asked for peace of heart and mind. I asked for His peace that surpasses all understanding. I asked and true to His promise, I received.