God.
You are the fountain of everything that is good.
And yet there is in me the desire
to imagine myself to be this fountain, instead of you
In my sin, I imagine myself to be a god –
self-dependent, self-powered, and self-glorified
This estimation of myself needs to die
because it is slowly killing me and viciously attacking you
These lofty thoughts of myself are really just low thoughts of you
These clinging shreds of self-righteousness
spurn your righteousness and your goodness
For I have in myself a sense of pride that –
when victorious – spawns every kind of arrogance and bragging, and
when defeated – yields to shame, self-loathing, self-hate, and a desire to re-crucify my Savior
Lord, implant in my soul a lowliness of spirit –
not a false humility or fake sense of sorrow
that is really nothing more than self-pity and pride.
Open in me a fountain of repentant tears –
a true repentance
that breaks my heart in affection for your glory
and binds it up in a hunger for your love
Then my heart will be more yielded to be your dwelling place
• More yielded for the Father to make his home in me
• More yielded for the Blessed Son to heal me with his gospel song
• More yielded for the Holy Spirit to descend on me with sanctifying grace
O Beautiful Trinity – three persons and one God
When you are present in me, evil cannot stay long
In your fellowship and friendship there is a fullness of joy
that crushes my guilt
Beneath your smile there is a sweet peace of conscience
that shatters my shame
• When my mind is yielded to your easy yoke, no fears can disturb my soul
• When my ear is pressed to your sturdy heart, no anxiety can trouble my rest
• When my faith is planted in your fertile soil, my heart blooms with sacrificial love
So, my Fountain of everything good, help me to drink of your sweet grace!
• My works of sin cannot exceed your mercy
• My urge to sin cannot exceed your irresistible beauty
• My urge to run from you cannot outrace the gifts of love you have planted in my path
• Infinite is your might!
• Boundless is your love!
• Limitless is your grace!
• Glorious is your saving name!
So let the angels sing over the work of our Great Savior – King Jesus – as they witness:
sinners who repent,
wanderers who return,
prodigals who are restored,
backsliders who are reclaimed,
satan’s captives who are set free,
blind eyes that are opened,
broken hearts that are bound,
the depressed who are cheered,
the ignorant who are enlightened,
the legalist who is driven from a refuge of religious lies,
the self-righteous who are stripped and then clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
and all the saints together who are built up in holy dependence upon Jesus
You Lord – not me – But you…
You and You Alone, are the Fountain of everything that is good.
Help me to drink from that fountain this very moment
so that all my dry, brittle pride
is drowned in the majestic waterfall of your grace
I ask these great things from my glorious Great God –
the Fountain of everything that is good.
Amen.
From: Valley of Vision: The Great God (p. 6)
