The carefully crafted words of poems bring ideas to life, sparking our interest in new ways. Poetry can give us fresh perspectives that inspire us to move closer to God. So, reading Christian poetry can help strengthen our faith. Here are five famous Christian poems to enjoy and ponder.
What Makes a Poem a Christian Poem?
We consider a poem a Christian poem when it focuses directly on the topic of our beliefs as Christians. However, many other poems contain lines that reflect aspects of Christianity – from seeking hope to celebrating love. We can see elements of our faith presented in lots of poems. But Christian poems address Christian concepts directly and make faith the theme of the entire poem.
The Bible contains poems, such as the Psalms that King David wrote. Those poems describe the full range of human emotions relating to a journey of faith. Poetry can often do a better job than prose at showing what it feels like to walk with God through different situations in life. Christian poems outside of the Bible also speak to our emotions as they focus on relationships with God.
Poem 1: “Savior” by Maya Angelou
This poem explores the gap between how Jesus calls us to live and how we actually live. It points out the hypocrisy and the need for believers to practice what they preach, lamenting: “Your agape sacrifice / is reduced to colored glass, vapid penance, and the / tedium of ritual.” Then it asks Jesus to help us and speaks eloquently about our common need for his help to meet us wherever we are. The poem concludes: “Visit us again, Savior. / Your children, burdened with / disbelief, blinded by a patina / of wisdom, / carom down this vale of / fear. We cry for you / although we have lost / your name.” By reading “Savior,” we can understand how important it is to renew our commitment to follow Jesus and put our faith into action regularly. We also see a spotlight on Jesus as our advocate, who will respond when we reach out to him for help.
Poem 2: “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” by William Cowper
In this poem, which also became a hymn, we see a lyrical description of the wondrous ways God works. The first stanza is especially famous: “God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform; / He plants His footsteps in the sea / And rides upon the storm.” The poem contains compelling imagery of God bringing about blessings from situations that we don’t fully understand. It encourages us to trust that God will fulfill good purposes through all circumstances – as Romans 8:28 declares: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Throughout its lines, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” celebrates the awe we can experience when we wake up to the reality of God’s work in our lives, which I show how to do in my book Wake Up to Wonder. It concludes by pointing out that we can learn more about God through mysteries if we approach them thoughtfully: “Blind unbelief is sure to err / And scan His work in vain; / God is His own interpreter, / And He will make it plain.”
Poem 3: “A Prayer” by Anne Brontë
This poem expresses the power of prayer to connect us to God, no matter what. It opens by describing how even in sin and with weak faith, we can reach out to God, and continues by asking God for strength and love. One stanza tells God: “I cannot say my faith is strong, / I dare not hope my love is great; / But strength and love to Thee belong; / Oh, do not leave me desolate!”. When we read “A Prayer,” we can realize that it’s always worthwhile to pray. The poem concludes on a confident note: “I know I owe my all to Thee; / Oh, TAKE the heart I cannot give! / Do Thou my strength—my Savior be, / And MAKE me to Thy glory live.” The emphasis in this concluding stanza is on the action that God takes when we pray – reaching out to us wherever we are and giving us whatever we need, through his unlimited power rather than through our own limited power. Just like “A Prayer” does, Hebrews 4:16 urges us to “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Poem 4: “A Thank-Offering” by Ella Higginson
The theme of this poem is gratitude to God for his goodness. Speaking to God, the poem describes positive and negative experiences alike as worthy of thankfulness because God helps us be joyful in any circumstances. The first section of the poem often points out the blessing of experiencing nature’s beauty, with the second stanza celebrating: “For us the silver nights and golden days, / The violet mist; / The pearly clouds pierced with vibrating rays / Of amethyst.” The poem reminds us that we can see God’s qualities reflected in every part of nature, as Romans 1:19-20 tells us: “For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” The poem’s second section honestly points out human struggles in our fallen world, with one stanza lamenting: “Lord God, for some of us the days and years / Have bitter been; / For some of us the burden and the tears, / The gnawing sin.” However, the poem then acknowledges that God has been present with us and provided for our needs faithfully, with lines like “And Thou hast given courage strong and sweet / To the sad and old.” The poem concludes by thanking God for his provision in all circumstances. It points out that God provides through nature that reminds us of his constant presence (“…For the leaf and flower; / For the tempered winds, and quickening, velvet sod, / And the gracious shower.”) and through meeting our practical needs (“… we thank Thee for this land / Where all are fed, / Where at the doors no freezing beggars stand, / Pleading for bread.”
Poem 5: “Death, Be Not Proud” by John Donne
In this poem, the poet addresses death and celebrates the fact that God – not death – is ultimately in control of our destinies. The poem begins with this bold and confident stanza: “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee / Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so; / For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow / Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.” In John 11:25, Jesus declares: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” We can be confident as Christians that death is merely a transition from our earthly lives to lives in heaven with God, thanks to Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice for us. So, when we attend funerals we can grieve with hope, and when we ponder our own mortality we can also look forward to heaven. “Death, Be Not Proud” concludes with these victorious words: “One short sleep past, we wake eternally, / And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.” That last line is a reference to the message of Revelation 21:4, which says: “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’”
Conclusion
Reading Christian poems can spark our curiosity and inspire us to learn more about God, ourselves, and our world. Enjoying Christian poems gives us fresh perspectives on the journey of faith God calls us to take. Along the way, we can move closer to God and develop stronger relationships with him.
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Whitney Hopler helps people discover God's wonder and experience awe. She is the author of several books, including the nonfiction books Wake Up to Wonder and Wonder Through the Year: A Daily Devotional for Every Year, and the young adult novel Dream Factory. Whitney has served as an editor at leading media organizations, including Crosswalk.com, The Salvation Army USA’s national publications, and Dotdash.com (where she produced a popular channel on angels and miracles). She currently leads the communications work at George Mason University’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. Connect with Whitney on her website at www.whitneyhopler.com, on Facebook, and on X/Twitter.