"The Deeps"

This prayer is from a book I want to get, The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan writings from the 16th and 17th centuries. Although “The Deeps” is a long prayer, it is well worth reading.

“The Deeps”

Lord Jesus,
Give me a deeper repentance,
A horror of sin,
A dread of its approach;
Help me chastely to flee it,
And jealously to resolve that my heart
Shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust,
That I may lose myself to find myself in Thee,
The ground of my rest,
The spring of my being.
Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself
as Saviour, Master, Lord, and King.

Give me deeper power in private prayer,
More sweetness in Thy Word,
More steadfast grip on its truth.
Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action,
and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord,
Heavenly Husbandman,
That my being may be a tilled field.
The roots of grace spreading far and wide,
Until Thou alone art seen in me,
Thy beauty golden like summer harvest,
Thy fruitfulness and autumn plenty.

I have no master but Thee,
No law but Thy will,
No delight but Thyself,
No wealth but that Thou givest,
No good but that Thou bestowest.

No peace but that Thou makest me,
I have nothing but that I receive from Thee,
I can be nothing but that grace adorns me.
Quarry me deep, dear Lord,
And then fill me to overflowing
With living water.

I took this photo during my trial as a teacher’s aid at a Christian school on the North West Coast in October. The farming country there reminds me of the work of our “Heavenly Husbandman”, who so ably works in us to create a “tilled field” of grace.