The Deeps

I have been meditating on the prayer below for some weeks now. Perhaps you will find enrichment in our Lord Jesus in contemplating it. Prayers such as this are not fast food, they are meant to be pondered over days and weeks and months...indeed over a lifetime, as with the Psalms. May I suggest that you read it, ponder it, and pray it everyday, at least for a week. Take it slowly, let it permeate your soul. 

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 as 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 blessest,

  no peace but that thou bestowest.

I am nothing 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.

The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth, pages 134 - 135