I am Thine

Dear friend,

I heard you that have been restless and weary. The days are long, but the years are short. In case you, like me, need words of help to pray, here is one I am praying today.

Often foolish, I act as though I am my own resting place. But as the Lord is kind to reveal, again and again, that I am not enough. I am not trustworthy; I am not strong.

Thank you, Puritan brothers and sisters, for writing down your prayers.

O HEAVENLY FATHER, 

Teach me to see
that if Christ has pacified Thee and satisfied divine justice,
He can also deliver me from my sins;
that Christ does not desire me, now justified,
to live in self-confidence and in my own strength,
but gives me the law of the Spirit of Life, to enable me to obey Thee;
that the Spirit and His power are mine by resting on Christ’s death;
that the Spirit of Life within answers to the law without;
that if I sin not I should thank Thee for it;
that if I sin I should be humbled daily under it;
that I should mourn for sin more than other men do,
for when I see I shall die because of sin that makes me mourn;
when I see how sin strikes at Thee, that makes me mourn;
when I see that sin caused Christ’s death, that makes me mourn;
that sanctification is the evidence of reconciliation,
proving that faith has truly apprehended Christ;

Thou hast taught me
that faith is nothing else than receiving Thy kindness;
that it is an adherence to Christ, a resting on Him,
love clinging to Him as a branch to the tree, to seek life and vigour from Him.

I thank Thee for showing me the vast difference between knowing things by reason,
and knowing them by the spirit of faith.

By reason I see a thing is so; by faith I know it as it is.
I have seen Thee by reason and have not been amazed,
I have seen Thee as Thou art in the Son and have been ravished to behold Thee!

I bless Thee that I am Thine in my Savior, Jesus.

The Valley of Vision, 102-103.