All The Way My Savior Leads Me

Fanny Crosby, a gifted and prolific 19th century hymn writer, lost her sight at six weeks of age due to medical mistreatment. Fanny was surely well acquainted with the vulnerability characteristic of the visually impaired. This handicap, rather than discouraging or embittering her, instead caused her to ceaselessly rely on the Lord and to draw all her strength from Him.

The following hymn, composed after she had received an immediate answer to prayer, attests to the spirit of absolute dependence on God exhibited in the life of Fanny Crosby. One day she desperately needed five dollars and had no way to obtain it. As was her custom, Fanny began to pray about this pressing need. A few minutes later, a stranger came to her door with the exact amount. “I have no way of accounting for this,” she later said, “except to believe that God put it into the heart of this good man to bring the money. My first thought was that it is so wonderful the way the Lord leads me, I immediately wrote the poem and Dr. Lowry set it to music.”


All the way my Savior leads me; what have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my Guide?
Heavenly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.


All the way my Savior leads me, cheers every winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps may falter, and my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me, lo! a spring of joy I see.


All the way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father's house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.

While men may esteem and extol a Christian of great personal ability, strength, or works, God would rather that we be men of faith who love Him purely and depend on Him continually (Mark 12:28-30). Such was the case of the apostle Paul, whose His intimacy with God was the hidden root of all his life and labor (Phil. 4:13). He once remarked, “On behalf of myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses,” for the Lord had revealed to him, “My power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:5, 9). For a believer to trust in his own works and capability hinders him from fully experiencing God's grace, because he has not learned what it means to utterly rely on Him. One indicator of spiritual development is the ability to sincerely testify with the apostle Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain… I labored…, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me” (1 Cor. 15:10).