upward & inward

In the book of Puritan Prayers, the last entry is entitled, "Valley of Vision".  As I read the prayer, I was reminded of the last several months and how God has used low times in my life to see Him differently - bigger, grander, more beautiful, and somehow more ominous, also. Not that He doesn't have those attributes all the time, but that I fail to notice them. I believe that great things are coming. What those are, I don't know, but I feel them nonetheless - pressing, enveloping, warming, enticing.  It's as if God is saying from behind the door as we wait in His waiting room, "What awaits is beyond your wildest imaginations. So, be the child I've called you to be: obedient, willing, eager, patient, humble, and loving.  Above all, trust Me." Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, You have brought me to the valley of vision, where I live in the depths but see You in the heights; hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Your glory. Let me learn by ...

Texting with a fellow soldier in His Kingdom this evening, I was reminded again of the comfort I have found in these prayers of the Puritans. Here is The Evening Praise: Giver of all, another day is ended and I take my place beneath my great redeemer's cross, where healing streams continually descend, where balm is poured into every wound, where I wash anew in the all-cleansing blood, assured that You see in me no spots of sin. Yet a little while and I shall go to Your home and be no more seen; help me to gird up the loins of my mind, to quicken my step, to speed as if each moment were my last, that my life be joy, my death glory. I thank You for the temporal blessings of this world — the refreshing air, the light of the sun, the food that renews strength, the clothing that covers me, the dwelling that shelters...

One of the books I enjoy to return to is the book of Puritan Prayers.  They both admonish me and encourage me to live the life that Christ has promised - one that is to be lived, to the full. Eternal Father, it is amazing love, that You have sent Your Son to suffer in my stead, that You have added the Spirit to teach, comfort, guide, that You have allowed the ministry of angels to wall me round; all heaven subserves the welfare of a poor worm. Permit Your unseen servants to be ever active on my behalf, and to rejoice when grace expands in me. Suffer them never to rest until my conflict is over, and I stand victorious on salvation's shore. Grant that my proneness to evil, deadness to good, resistance to Your Spirit's motions, may never provoke You to abandon me. May my hard heart awake Your pity, not Your wrath, And if the enemy gets an advantage through my corruption, let it be seen that heaven is mightier than hell, that those for me are greater than those against me. Arise...