The Chapter 30 Diner (14)

 

“Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar.” Proverbs 30:5 – 6.

 

During the past few weeks my heart has been arrested by a prayer found in the Valley of Vision, published by Banner of Truth and edited by Arthur Bennett. It is titled The Deeps and is on pages 134 – 135. Here is how it begins:

 

“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.”

 

I am sharing this because the last post in this series was about knowing God as our refuge and it seems to me that this prayer is a living example of what knowing God in Christ as our refuge can look like. (I hope to share more of this prayer in forthcoming posts).

 

In the previous post I pointed out that we need a refuge when we are fleeing danger, and sin is certainly an ever-present danger to the saints of God. Do we have “a horror of sin, a dread of its approach”? Do we desire to chastely flee it?

 

What does it mean to chastely flee sin? I take it to mean that we flee with pure hearts, not with hearts that are divided between sin and holiness, not as Lot’s wife who looks back on that which she is leaving, rather than looking ahead to the salvation that God is working.

 

Do our hearts belong to God alone? Can we hear Jesus saying, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God”? Can we hear Him saying that we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength?

 

Are we losing ourselves that we might find ourselves in Jesus? Or are we foolishly adhering to the ways of this world – system, which is passing away?

 

Is the Holy Trinity the ground of our rest, the very spring of our being? That is, do we utterly and completely live in the Vine, drawing our life from Him?

 

That is, is God our Refuge?