Need of grace

This line from the Valley of Vision captured me this morning:

“Return again with showers of converting grace to a poor gospel-abusing sinner.  Help my soul to breath after holiness, after a constant devotedness to thee, after growth in grace more abundantly every day.”

May the Lord turn us from our gospel-abusing ways and help us as individuals and the Church to pursue holiness, constant devotion, and growth in grace more abundantly every day.  May our pray echo the longing of Isaiah 64:

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

     ^     that the mountains might quake at your presence—

²      as when fire kindles brushwood

          and the fire causes water to boil—

^     to make your name known to your adversaries,

          and that the nations might tremble at your presence!

^{3 }     When you did awesome things that we did not look for,

          you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Is 64:1-3.

The Strange Struggle

‘The Valley of Vision’ is a collection of Puritan prayers that I’ve been using in my devotions.  The prayer I used today expresses so well the strange struggle believers wrestle with: as one grows in Christ, he/she becomes more aware of his/her sinfulness.  Isn’t that stange?  One would think that after being a believer for many years there would actually be less sin to repent of!  Such a mindset reveals a misunderstanding  of our own sin & robs us of influences that should drive us to Christ.

But this strange struggle we face is a pain we should truly welcome.  For as one’s awareness of his/her sin deepens so does his/her appreciation of the cross and the grace of Christ that sustains us and gives us strength to combat sin.  The often used quote should not lose its impact on us: he has not thought much of grace who thinks little of sin.

 As the Puritan prayer so aptly states:

“The memory of my great sins, my many temptations, my falls,

   bring afresh into my mind the remembrance

       of thy great help, of thy support from heaven,

       of the great grace that saved such a wretch as I am.

There is no treasure so wonderful

   as that continuous experience of thy grace toward me

       which alone can subdue the risings of sin within:

Give me more of it.”