September 2009

I am reading a book entitled "Valley of Vision." It is prayers by Puritans. I am reading it for at least the fourth time. I read one prayer every day and incorporate a part into the Verse of the Day that I email out each day. Many of them have impacted my thinking and even more my heart. I hate what it shows me of my heart. But it makes me see the gospel message even more clearly.

For example one of the prayers talks about how we think about times when we lose our temper. Here is the quote:

"Most men give vent to anger frequently and are overcome by it, bringing many excuses and attenuation for it (we diminish it) as that it occurs suddenly, that they delight not in it, that they are sorry afterwards, that godly men commit it. They thus seek peace after outbursts of passion by entire forgetfulness of it, or by skimming over their wound they hope for healing without peace in Christ's blood." (P. 89)

Wow, that sounds like what I do. I would like to think that my sin is not that serious, to diminish it, to say it just happened or it just came up. We
ask, "Where did that anger come from?" as if it is not within us. We think that if we say we are sorry that will make it all right. Or we say, "Well, other people do it too." The great danger is that we try to be managers of our sin thinking that since it is not that serious we will be able to control it.

Remember Jesus told Simon the Pharisee in Luke 7 that we will love God according to the amount that we think we have been forgiven. That depends on when we recognize the greatness of our sins and therefore of the size of God’s grace to us. If we love God little it means that we think he has only forgiven us a little and if we realize that we have been forgiven a great deal we will love God a great deal.

I find this convicting on mornings I have to drag myself to read his Word. How is my love for God? Do I love to get to know him through his Word? Do I love to talk with him through prayer and spend time in conversation as I would with any friend I really care about? How is your love life?