Blessed be his name

All-searching God

You read the heart,
view the principles and motives of actions,
see more defilement in my duties (godly living?)
than I ever saw in any of my sins!

The heavens are not clean in your sight, and you charge the angels with folly.

I am ready to flee from myself because of my abominations;
yet you do not abhor me! And you have devised means for my return by your Son who died to give me life.

Your honour is secured and displayed even in my escape from your threats, and that, by means of Jesus in who mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other.

In him the enslaved find redemption,
the guilty pardon,
the unholy renovation;

In him is everlasting strength for the weak,
unsearchable riches for the needy,
treasures of wisdom and knowledge for the ignorant,
fullness for the empty.

At your gracious call I hear, take, come, apply, receive his grace,
not only submit to his mercy but acquiesce in it,
not only glory in the cross but in him crucified and slain,
not only joy in forgiveness but in the one through whom atonement comes.

Your blessings are as secure as they are glorious;
You have provided for my safety and my prosperity, and have promised that I will stand firm and grow stronger.
O Lord God, without the pardon of my sin I cannot rest satisfied, without the renovation of my nature by grace I can never rest easy, without the hopes of heaven I can never be at peace.

All this I have in thy Son Jesus; blessed by his name.

adapted from The Valley of Vision, p38-39

United with Christ or else.....

O Father,
You have made mankind for your own glory and when he is not an instrument of that glory he is nothing.
No sin is greater than that of unbelief, for if union with Chrsit is the greatest good, unbelief is the greatest sin, as being rebellion to your command.
I see that there is no sin like disunion from Christ by unbelief, whatever the sin.
Lord, keep me from committing the greatest sin in departing from him,
For I can never in this life perfectly obey and cleave to Christ.
When you take away my outward blessings , it is for sin,
in not acknowledging that all that I have is of you,
in not serving you through what I have,
in making myself secure and hardened.
Lawful blessings are the secret idols and do most hurt; the greatest injury is in the having, the greatest good in the taking away.
In love remove my blessings that I may glorify you more; remove the fuel of my sin, and may I prize the gain of a little holiness as overbalancing my losses.
The more I love you with a truly gracious love the more I desire to love you,
And the more miserable I am at my lack of love.
The more I hunger and thirst after you,
The more I faint and fail to find you.
The more my heart is broken for sin, the more I pray it may be far more broken.
My great evil is that I do not remember the sins of my youth, indeed the sins of one day I forget the next!
Keep me from all things that turn to unbelief or lack of felt union with Christ.

[slightly adapted from p36-7 in The Valley of Vision]

Full to the Brim and Overflowing

O God you have taught me that Christ has all fullness and so all plenitude of the Spirit, for his people, not for himself alone, having perfect knowledge, grace, righteousness, to make me see, to make me righteous, to give the fullness. All fullness I lack in myself is in him.

You have taught me that it is my duty, out of a sense of emptiness, to go to Christ, possess, enjoy his fullness as mine, as if I had it in myself, because it is for me in him.

You have taught me that when I do this I am full of the spirit, as a fish that has got from the shore to the sea and has all fullness of waters to move in, for when faith fills me, then I am full.

You have taught me that this is the way to be filled with the spirit, like Stephen, first faith, then fullness. For this way makes me most empty, and so most fit for the Spirit to fill.

You have taught me that the finding of this treasure of all grace in the field of Christ begets strength, joy, glory and renders all graces alive.

Help me to delight more in what I receive from Christ, more in that fullness which is in him, the fountain of all his glory.

Let me not think to receive the Spirit from him as a ‘thing’ apart from finding, drinking, being filled with him. To this end, O God, establish me in Christ, settle me, give me a being there, assure me with certainty that all this is mine, for this only will fill my heart with joy and peace.

adapted from Valley of Vision