I am not
what I once was
(John Newton)
I am not what I ought to be.
Ah, how imperfect and deficient.
I am not what I wish to be. I abhor what
is evil, and I would
cleave to what is good.
I am not what I hope to be. Soon I shall put
off, with
mortality--all sin and imperfection.
Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what
I wish to
be, nor what I hope to be--I can truly
say that I am not what I once was--a slave
to sin
and Satan. And I can heartily join with the
apostle and say that "by the
grace of God I am
what I am!" 1
Corinthians 15:10