For all led by the Spirit

For all led by the Spirit of God our Lord on high

Are children of that same God and on God's grace rely.

This Spirit does not hold us in bondage or in fear,

But brings us to adoption by God who draws us near. 

And if we are God's children, then heirs of God are we!

Joint-heirs with Christ our brother! Let all now hear and see!

 

Now hear creation groaning, with labor pains it cries;

Oh, how it longs for freedom, in earth and seas and skies!

We, too, wait or redemption with sighs for what will be;

We wait with hope and patience, although we do not see.

For all led by the Spirit of God our Lord above

Are children of this same God through God's unending love.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, July 2023; loosely after Romans 8:12-25

MUSIC: Tune THAXTED, Gustav Holst, 1918.

 

 

The tunes seem to be trending bigger and more majestic, for the moment anyway. These later passages are long enough to resist a full summary in a hymn text (unless one wants to write old-fashioned hymn texts with twelve or eighteen stanzas, which I don't), so some picking and choosing is going on, admittedly.