one pure and holy passion

Give me one pure and holy passion.

Give me one magnificent obsession.

Give me one glorious ambition for my life,

to know and follow hard after You.

To know and follow hard after You.

To grow as Your disciple in the truth.

This world is empty, pale and poor

compared to knowing You my Lord;

Lead me on, and I will run after You.

*

I have sang and prayed that song many times, and I believe meant it from my heart, and yet never really considered what it would take for God to answer that prayer. How can God answer that prayer except by the removal of things which stand in the way of it? And then how do I respond to God's answer? Do I immediately ask God to give those things back which he removed? It's not so hard when the things removed are things which we know are not good. But what about when they are things which are good? What if it is things like my love of woodworking..... a skill God has given me and I have been blessed to be able to use to help support my family.... now mostly sidelined by weakness and exhaustion. Or my joy in kayaking and the wonderful times I have been able to share with my girls on our kayak trips together.... and my ability to be able to do that being very questionable. These are good things, but do they somehow get in the way of better things? I don't know for sure, but God does, and I just have to entrust him with the answer. And still I have to keep praying, even when the answer He gives feels painful.

*

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him." Philippians 3:7-9

*

These verses mirror the song I started with, but what really stands out is the following verses where Paul continues in the same thought... "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." (v. 10-11)

*

The fellowship of sharing in his sufferings..... that doesn't seem like something we would like to pray for, but maybe that is part of what it takes to know Christ. And so when these things come, it could be an answer to our own prayers.... "a severe mercy." (a C.S. Lewis phrase I believe)

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The next verses in the chapter (3:12-14) can be turned into our prayer along the way...

Lord,

I have not already abtained all this, and I have certainly not already been made perfect, but help me to press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Let this be the one thing I do: to forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead, and to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. In His name, amen.

from strength to strength

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
they make it a place of springs;
the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
till each appears before God in Zion.
Psalm 84:5-7

*

They go from strength to strength...... this caught my eye in writing my previous entry. It sounds neat, but I really didn't know what it meant, and so it has just been roaming my mind since then. Probably the main interpretation of this phrase is that it refers to God's renewing our strength. But tonight while out walking another thought that came to mind was that it could also mean shifting from relying on my own strength, to relying on God's strength.

*

Lord, help me to find my strength only in you. Help me to set my heart not on the here and now, but on pilgrimage. As I pass through this valley, please make it a place of springs..... springs of living water, found only in you. And as my strength fades, please be my strength, until I appear before you in Zion. In Jesus name, amen.

*

"He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint."

Isaiah 40:29-31

in a dry land

The second son he named Ephraim and said,

"It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."

Genesis 41:52

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O God, you are my God.

earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you,

my body longs for you,

in a dry and weary land

where there is no water.

Psalm 63:1

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These verses came to mind in connection with the passage about the vine and the branches in John 15. "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (v. 5) It takes those times when everything other than Christ becomes dry land, for us to truly learn to seek after and become rooted in Christ alone; and it is only when we become firmly rooted in Christ alone that we can really bear fruit.

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Lord, the last few days I have lost sight of that. I have started to resent the loss of some of the other things I was rooted in; particularly, my own (literal) strength and abilities. Help me not to long for the things I have lost, but to long only for you. Help me to become rooted only in you. Help me not to become resentful or discouraged when you are working to make this prayer true in my life, and forgive me for the many times I do. In Jesus name, amen.

*

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

Psalm 84:5-7