129

My Grace Is Sufficient for Thee

I

Oppress’d with unbelief and sin,
Fightings without, and fears within,
While earth and hell, with force combined.
Assault and terrify my mind;

II

What strength have I against such foes,
Such hosts and legions to oppose?
Alas! I tremble, faint, and fall;
Lord, save me, or I give up all.

III

Thus sorely press’d, I sought the Lord,
To give me some sweet cheering word;
Again I sought, and yet again;
I waited long, but not in vain.

IV

Oh! ’twas a cheering word indeed!
Exactly suited to my need;
“Sufficient for thee is my grace,
Thy weakness my great power displays.”

V

Now I despond and mourn no more,
I welcome all I fear’d before:
Though weak, I’m strong, though troubled, blest,
For Christ’s own power shall on me rest.

VI

My grace would soon exhausted be,
But his is boundless as the sea;
Then let me boast with holy Paul,
That I am nothing, Christ is all.

Where this text comes from

First published in Olney Hymns (1779). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-15.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns, book-1.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L24.

Cite this poem

John Newton (1725–1807). “My Grace Is Sufficient for Thee.” First published in Olney Hymns (1779). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/john-newton/my-grace-is-sufficient-for-thee/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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