I am Not What I Once Was

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; 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 knowledge that by the grace of God I am what I am.... Author John Newton 1725-1807