The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beeching
Day 21 – Friday after Lent 3 – Only Your Love
To Read:
From the Scriptures:
The angel of the Lord found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai.’ 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress, and submit to her.’
(Genesis 16v7-9)
From Vicky Beeching:
Only Your Love
I’ve been hiding, I’ve been running away
But I am so tired of staying the same
Grace is calling, grace is drawing me back home
To You alone
Only Your love changes me
Only Your love sets me free
Only Your love can take my fear and doubt
And change me from the inside out
Only Your love
In this moment, with a heart wide open
I cry, ‘come and heal my life’
Mercy meets me, I’m completely amazed
I’ll never be the same
Chorus
I am reaching out, so in need of You
Come and heal my life
Come and make me new (repeats)
How I love you (x3)
Chorus
To Listen: Only Your Love by Vicky Beeching
To Reflect:
Without getting too deeply involved in the marital relationships between the Old Testament Patriarchs, their wives and their wives’ slaves (it gets really messy when it comes to Jacob the founder of Israel – womanist friends might ask why Dinah seems to disappear from history…?) today’s reading and Vicky’s song calls us, for whatever reason we have run away to come home rather than run away when things need sorting out.
For Hagar this reconciliation did not last long (Genesis 21v8-20). Finding herself evicted by Sarai become Sarah once more, she still finds herself found by God again. Angels in the Old Testament seemed to have had to work very long hours sorting out our machinations and selfishness!
In the first case Hagar perhaps could have been a little less boastful of her fecundity in the second Sarah perhaps could have been a little more thankful for the blessing of a child. Both of them needed to know the grace of God calling them. Instead they hid the love of God with selfishness – Hagar’s contempt – and fear – Sarah’s concern that Ishmael might supplant Isaac.
Do you ever find yourself in places like this? Hiding from love for fear of revealing our fear or for shame of showing our shame? I do. And again and again I need to learn that there is but one antidote for this relentless cycle of helplessness and failure;
Only Your love changes me
Only Your love sets me free
Only Your love can take my fear and doubt
And change me from the inside out
Only Your love
And as we learn the fullness of that love then healing finally becomes possible and we are made new.
To Pray:
To Thee, O Jesu, I direct my eyes;
To Thee my hands,
to Thee my humble knees;
To Thee my heart shall offer sacrifice;
To Thee my thoughts,
who my thoughts only sees;
To Thee my self – my self and all I give;
To Thee I die;
to Thee I only live.
(Attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh)
To Do:
God loves you. Today show that by loving yourself a little.
If there is a Lenten discipline that has been nagging at you, a bar of chocolate or an ice cream cone perhaps, you have my permission to break your fast today.
Whatever you chose to do treat yourself a little today as a reminder of the generous love with which our Beloved showers you.
Just for Fun:
Sometimes running away can be about running towards. Here is a pop song that is about just that which may encourage us in these least weeks of Lent to run towards our Beloved.
oooOOOooo
If you would like to find out more about Vicky and her work here is a link to her Wikipedia entry. For a fuller picture her autobiography ‘Undivided’ is highly recommended
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Bluesky as @suffolkvicar.bsky.social, and on my public Facebook page Suffolk Vicar – Rev Andrew Dotchin.
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Acknowledgements:
These Reflections, ‘The Wonder of the Cross – 40 Days with the Music of Vicky Beaching’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that their source is acknowledged.
All of the music on the video clips are from YouTube and are © Vicky Beeching.
If you enjoy listening to her songs please consider buying her recordings. A full discography and other information about Vicky can be found on her website vickybeeching.com.
Scripture quotations are from The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Prayers are from A Diary of Prayer compiled by Elizabeth Goudge and are copyright © 1966 The Estate of Elizabeth Goudge.
Suffolk Vicar 