martins on the move

    These past few days I have really been struggling with the burden of my sin. I have been clinging to it in hopes of receiving some quickly fleeting gratification. I have been intentionally turning from my Gracious Father to the depths of my sinful heart. Thankfully though, the Lord didn’t turn from me. The Spirit has been burning my heart, creating a yearning for him and he led me to conviction and encouragement today. Praise God!

     During my reading and prayers this morning, I read through a devotional/prayer from the Valley of Vision and then went into the word, Matthew 7:7-11 specifically. The combination of these two were a powerful salve to my heart. I pray that they may be of encouragement to you as well.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him.” Matt 7:7-11 (ESV)

Christ tells us to ask! How awesome, how amazing! Well after meditating on the implications of that command, I went back through and read through this gem of a prayer from the Puritans. It is from the prayer book, The Valley of Vision.

It’s copyrighted so click on this link to read it. 🙂

     How often I have felt unfit to serve the Lord; felt weak, ignorant, unprofitable and at a loss to know what the Lord would have me do. But I asked! I prayed that he would “Return again with showers of converting grace
to a poor gospel-abusing sinner”. If Christ promises that the Heavenly Father will give so much better gifts than our earthly fathers, I pray that this request is replaced with something far more amazing. This is how the prayer closes, I pray that my heart and my mind will constantly remember these words.

“O that all my distresses and apprehensions
might prove but Christ’s school
to make me fit for greater service
by teaching me the great lesson of humility”

-Jeremy