The Power To Salvation

In Egypt I wandered for many a year;
Entrapped in its pleasures, too blinded to fear.
For sin was attractive and easy to find,
Though it rotted my soul, I just didn't mind

Temptations abundant distracted my eye;
I walked all around - never looked to the sky.
All thoughts of a Saviour I tried to ignore,
I banished my guilt by indulging in more.

Till one day my sin seemed to please me no longer.
Though I tried every vice, discontentment was stronger.
Sin had taken me farther than I wanted to go,
And slowly I realised sin, not I, had control!

I scrambled and grasped for some means of escape;
I reformed many times, my life I tried to reshape.
And when all my efforts had come to an end,
I was still just as captive, not willing to bend.

And then, when I'd come to the end of my rope,
I heard once again the sweet message of hope.
This time my ears listened to what I'd stifled before,
And the message that entered shook to the core!

As the gospel of God caused my proud heart to tremble,
I shook to discover I did not resemble
Even closely the Lord who became propitiation,
Bearing my sin so I could have salvation.

And then with a contrite heart God had broken,
I surrendered my being to the Word He had spoken.
And as God brought the increase from the seed one had sown,
I knelt in repentance, claiming Him as my own.

A peace so unnatural flowed into my soul,
And joy more abundant, now that I'd been made whole.
No effort required, "Praise the Lord! Free at last!"
Sin's prison doors open, I turned from my past.

And now I go forward, pressing on t'ward the mark.
There's a fire in my spirit that began with the spark
Of the gospel of God, the power to salvation.
My life is His now, in full consecration.

This poem won first place for the May 2014 poetry contest