Blessed be Thy Name

Every perfection adorns thy nature and sustains thy throne;
The heavens and earth are thine,
The world is thine and its fullness.
Thy power created the universe from nothing;
Thy wisdom has managed all its multiple concerns,
presiding over nations, families, individuals.
Thy goodness is boundless;
all creatures wait on thee
are supplied by thee,
are satisfied in thee.

Teach us to place our happiness in thee, the blessed God...
Thou hast attended to our happiness more than we can do;
Though we are fallen creatures thou hast not neglected us.

Let us judge our Christianity, not only by our dependence upon Jesus,
but by our love to him,
our conformity to him,
our knowledge of him...

knowing that thou hast said,
'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee'.

Blessed be thy name!

~ The Valley of Vision, Fourth Day Morning and Evening excerpts

I will be the first to admit that in the throne of my heart almost anything else EXCEPT Christ reigns on any given day. My own needs usually hold the rule; sometimes music is worshiped, other times my family, my career, the opinion of others. But why do I run after what cannot fill me or save me? If I try to rest my full weight on these things, they collapse, of course.

In the end, everything will fail. All that I've tried to wrap up my identity in will be broken, gone. Naked we came into this world. Naked we will leave.

Unless my identity is in Christ.

The One who holds the power of the stars also holds my soul. Frail, fallen, temporary being that I am, my life is his! There is eternal hope in those eight words: "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." What blessings of hope come from this assurance!

Blessed be Thy name!

Following the Path Where It Leads

The Start

The First Day: There was Evening, and There was Morning

The Second Day: Thy Bounty is Seen

The Third Day: Peace from the Keeper