This little book is really a journal to me. It holds reminders of heart ache, sickness, health, sweet memories and many, many miracles. And so it is bittersweet to place it on the shelf and begin a new book. I'm familiar with the old and have adjusted to what it holds. The new is very much unknown and not at all familiar. Although it has few markings now, I pray it holds proof of countless miracles for His glory with 2012 comes to a close.
My prayer as I move on from the old and into the new...
My God, I bless Thee that Thou hast given me the eye of faith,
to see Thee as Father,
to know Thee as a covenant God,
to experience Thy love planted in me;
for faith is the grace of union
by which I spell out my entitlement to Thee:
faith casts my anchor upwards where I trust in Thee
and engage Thee to be my Lord.
Be pleased to live and move within me,
breathing in my prayers,
inhabiting my praises,
speaking in my words,
moving in my actions,
living in my life,
causing me to grow in grace.
Thy bounteous goodness has helped me believe,
but my faith is weak and wavering,
its light dim,
its steps tottering,
its increase slow,
its backslidings frequent;
it should scale the heavens,
but it lies grovelling in the dust.
Lord, fan this diving spark into glowing flame.
When faith sleeps, my heart become an unclean thing,
the fount of every loathsome desire,
to cage of unclean lusts all fluttering to escape,
the noxious tree of deadly fruit,
the open wayside of earthly tares.
Lord, awake faith to put forth its strength
until all heaven fills my soul
and all impurity is cast out.
From Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers.
Journeying On,
