I know I am not perfect and I can never be. That's why I need a deliverer, a Saviour, a lover of my soul.
Temptations and sins surround me. They are lurking for victims. They are sneaky. I might be strong this minute, but can be totally devastated by the army of Satan in the next to come. Therefore I need a constant guide, a light that shines in the darkness, to protect me, to remind me, and to keep me at His bay. I have tasted the goodness, the mercy, the grace and yet a single slip is enough to destroy.
Again, when I truly gaze at the Cross and meditate the wood, my heart pains.
So this is my prayer. I will pray it everyday to remind myself and to remind the Satan that trying to evoke me. The God who lives in me is bigger than the one out in the world.
Eternal Father,
Thou art good beyond all though,
But I am vile, wretched, miserable, blind;
My lips are ready to confess,
but my heart is slow to feel,
and my ways reluctant to amend.
I bring my soul to thee;
break it, wound it, bend it, mould it.
Unmask to me sin's deformity,
that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it.
My faculties have been a weapon of revolt against thee;
as a rebel I have misused my strength,
and served the foul adversary of thy kingdom.
Give me grace to bewail my insensate folly,
Grant me to know that the way of transgressors is hard,
that evil paths are wretched paths,
that to depart from thee is to lose all good.
I have seen the purity and beauty of thy perfect law,
the happiness of those in whose heart it reigns,
the calm dignity of the walk to which it calls,
yet I daily violate and contemn its precepts.
Thy loving Spirit strives within me,
brings me Scripture warnings,
speaks in startling providences,
allures by secret whispers,
yet I choose devices and desires to my own hurt,
impiously resent, grieve, and provoke him to abandon me.
All these sins I mourn, lament, and for them cry pardon.
Work in me more profound and abiding repentance;
Give me the fullness of a godly grief that trembles and fears,
yet ever trusts and loves,
which is ever powerful, and ever confident;
Grant that through the tears of repentance
I may see more clearly the brightness
and glories of the saving Cross.
From the Valley of Vision
