Where I Am

You know those days of pity that sneak up on you & then manage to take you out like a MACK truck?  I had one yesterday...and it was u.g.l.y.  I could say that it was because I had a sick kid & was confined to the house.  I could blame it on the stress of raising, disciplining, trying so hard to be consistent parenting two preschool aged girls.  I could insert & justify my "Pity Party of One"...(just ask Bferg) but the real reason boils down to self centered pride & a lost focus of who Christ is in my life & how His character is manifested in me.

I tend to reach for a little book called, The Valley of Vision in these moments of self realization.  Maybe because it is God's Word worded in old truths/prayers or maybe it is the old english that just wraps my heart in its words because it makes me truly read it or maybe the Holy Spirit is ever present in me & knows I need comfort.  Whatever it is...it always speaks to me.

The following words spoke to my heart today & if you have ever struggled with remembering that God is the Source of all good I hope you can find comfort in them as well.

"The Heavens declare thy glory, The earth thy riches,
The universe is thy temple;
Thy presence fills immensity,
Yet thou hast of they pleasure created life,
and communicated happiness;
Thou hast made me what I am, and given me what I have;
In thee I live and move and have my being;
Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation,
and wisely administers my affairs.
I thank thee for  thy riches to me in Jesus,
for the unclouded revelation of him in thy Word,
where I behold his Person, character, grave, glory, humiliation, sufferings, death and resurrection;
Give me to feel a need of his continual saviourhood,
and cry with Job, 'I am vile',
with Peter, 'I perish',
with the publican, 'Be merciful to me, a sinner'.
Subdue in me the love of sin,
Let me know the need of renovation as well as
of forgiveness,
in order to serve and enjoy thee for ever.
I come to thee in the all-prevailing name of Jesus,
with nothing of my own to plead,
no works, no worthiness, no promises.
I am often straying,
often knowingly opposing thy authority,
often abusing thy goodness;
Much of my guilt arises from my religious privileges,
my low estimation of them,
my failure to use them to my advantage,
But I am not careless of thy favour or regardless of thy glory;
Impress me deeply with a sense of thine
omnipresence, that thou are about my path, my ways, my lying down, my end."

Valley of Vision, pages 6-7

If you read all of that...thanks.  It is just where I am today.  So thankful that His mercies are new every morning!

Rachel