This morning I comforted my soul with a prayer from The Valley of Vision (p.199). It says:
“May the close of an earthly Sabbath remind me that the last of them will one day end.
Animate me with joy that in heaven praise will never cease,
That adoration will continue forever,
That no flesh will grow weary
no congregations disperse,
no affections flag
no thoughts wander,
no will droop,
but all will be adoring love!
…Wing me through earthly forms to thy immediate presence;
May my feeble prayers show me the emptiness and vanity of my sins;
Deepen in me the conviction that my most fervent prayers, and most lowly confessions, need to be repented of.
May my best services bring me nearer to the cross, and prompt me to cry, ‘None but Jesus!’
…Let all who see me take knowledge that I have been with thee
That thou hast taught me my need as a sinner,
hast revealed a finished salvation to me,
hast enriched me with all spiritual blessings,
hast chosen me to show forth Jesus to others,
hast helped me to dispel the mists of unbelief…
—Anonymous
I love this prayer for a few reasons.
First, it reminds me that every Lord’s day when we gather with God’s people to corporately worship Him will come to a close on this earth. Yet how much ought this to drive us to contemplate and yearn for that future Lord’s day when we will be enjoying the eternal rest of God with God’s people where the day of worship shall never cease!
Second, I am reminded that heaven is awesome and worthy of our deep consideration and constant reflection. Our feeble and frail and often faltering worship in this earth shall never ever happen in heaven. Our affections will never steer off of the Lamb who sits on the throne. We shall never droop our eyes in somber sorrow. We will never have anything but perfect adoring love for Christ our Savior and other people! How marvelous.
Third, I must repent of my repentance. How often the Godly preachers of old would say this and yet I’ve hardly ever heard this from a pulpit today. Often, confession of sins today from the lips of Christians is abominable. We must repent of our repentance. We must confess our generalizations and haphazard recognition of affronting God’s absolute righteousness. Let us be genuine in our repentance—specific, humbled, broken, and yet comforted by the eternally comforting embrace of Christ who extends the nail-pierced hands to restore the joy of our salvation to us after sincere repentance.
Fourth, Jesus Christ is the one who accomplished and revealed salvation to me. I am saved and sanctified and safe because of what Jesus Christ has sufficiently secured because of His atoning death on
Soli Deo Gloria.
