Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Jesus Our Benefactor

From 'Valley of Vision'.

My dear Lord,
I depend wholly on thee,
wean from me all other dependencies.
Though are my all, thou dost overrule all and delight in me.
Thou art the foundation of goodness,
how can I distrust thee?
how be anxious about what happens to me?
In the light of thy preciousness the world
and all its enjoyments are infinitely poor:
I value the favor of men no more than pebbles.
Amid the blessings I receive from thee
may I never lose the heart of a stranger. 
May I love thee, my benefactor, in all my benefits,
not forgetting that my greatest danger arises from all my advantages.
Produce in me self-despair that will make Jesus precious to me,
delightful in all his offices,
pleasurable in all his ways,
and may I love his commands as well as his promises.
Help me to discern between true and false love, 
the one consisting of supreme love to thee, the other not,
the former uniting thy glory and man's happiness
that they may become a common interest,
the latter disjointing and separating them both,
seeking the latter with neglect of the former.
Teach me that genuine love is different in kind 
from that wrought by rational arguments or the motive of self-interest,
that such love is a pleasing passion affording joy to the mind where it is.
Grant me grace to distinguish between the genuine and the false,
and to rest in thee who are all love. 

A great prayer for this morning. That we would lean more wholly upon Christ and trust in His benefits and that Jesus would be increasingly precious to us. 

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