Text: 2 Timothy 2:11-13, Galatians 6:14
As we walk through this season of reflection and repentance together, we want to provide time and space for us as individuals and a community to meditate on God’s Word and bow at His feet in prayer.
Each Saturday during Lent we will read a brief passage of Scripture and a corporate prayer, both carefully chosen for this specific place in our Lenten journey. Sundays will be dedicated to scripture memorization, one of our favorite habits here at She Reads Truth.
We pray you will not only meet with the Savior on these quieter weekend days, but linger there with Him, in prayer and in His Word.
O MY SAVIOUR,
I thank thee from the depths of my being
for thy wondrous grace and love
in bearing my sin in thine own body on the tree.
May thy cross be to me
as the tree that sweetens my bitter Marahs,
as the rod that blossoms with life and beauty,
as the brazen serpent that calls forth
the look of faith.
By thy cross crucify my every sin;
Use it to increase my intimacy with thyself;
Make it the ground of all my comfort,
the liveliness of all my duties,
the sum of all thy gospel promises,
the comfort of all my afflictions,
the vigour of my love, thankfulness, graces,
the very essence of my religion;
And by it give me that rest without rest,
the rest of ceaseless praise.
O MY LORD AND SAVIOUR,
Thou hast also appointed a cross for me
to take up and carry,
a cross before thou givest me a crown.
Thou hast appointed it to be my portion,
but self-love hates it,
carnal reason is unreconciled to it;
without the grace of patience I cannot bear it,
walk with it, profit by it.
O blessed cross, what mercies dost thou bring
with thee!
Thou art only esteemed hateful by my rebel will,
heavy because I shirk thy load.
Teach me, gracious Lord and Saviour,
that with my cross thou sendest promised grace
so that I may bear it patiently,
that my cross is thy yoke which is easy,
and thy burden which is light.
– “The Grace of the Cross” from The Valley of Vision
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I pray for myself and all here to rest in Jesus Christ our Savior who loves us with a cross love. May our bitterest moments turn to sweetness in His presence. Amen.
Love these verses! We serve a faithful God who loves us and wants our best! Serving him with gladness is true joy! Psalm 100:1-3 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth! Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Dear Abby-LOVE your explanation and summary of this prayer!! I’m saving to share with my daughters!!
No one should feel dumb for not understanding the prayer from the Valley of Vision. It is beautiful, and meaningful, and part of our spiritual heritage, but you do need a bit of background information to understand it though! So here goes:
The first part of the prayer references three events from Exodus, the story how God delivered Israel from Egypt, and led them through the wilderness for forty years, as they learned to trust in Him. Moses actually through some kind of tree into a bitter spring at a place called Marrah and it made the waters sweet. So also, the cross sweetens our bitterest experiences, because we know that Jesus suffered like us, and took the ultimate punishment of death and separation from God instead of us. Also, at some point in the book, God made Aaron's or Moses' staff or rod blossom, symbolizing how only he can bring life out of something that is dead!!! That word picture is so powerful to me!! Through the cross, through death, God brings new life into our hearts and into the world, and he is unstoppable!! Since Jesus overcame death, we know there is nothing left to fear, and it is only a matter of time before we see everything submitted to God's glorious, life-giving ways.
The third word-picture was really cool too. At some points, the Israelite rebelled, and God sent snakes (or a plague maybe). People were dying and Moses prayed to God that he would stop the plague (or snakes) and God told him something strange…Make a bronze snake, put it up on a pole, and have the people look at it (Huh??). Everyone who looked at the bronze (brazen) snake would be saved!. Basically, this was one more foreshadowing of the Cross of Christ…Jesus later referenced this passage in the gospels, when he said "Just as the snake was lifted up in the wilderness, so also the Son of Man must be lifted up, and everyone who looks to him will be saved." No one at the time realized he was talking about dying on the cross, but that is it–simply by looking at Jesus, and believing…we are saved.
It seems too simple for us works-righteousness oriented folk, and we tend to make it a lot more complicated than it is. But it is wonderfully simple…Everyone who looks upon the Son of Man –everyone who believes that Jesus' death on the cross makes me right with God, not my own works and sacrifices–will be saved.
This has been good for me to process through. Working in the school system, I feel heavy under the burden of trying to prove my worth through my work. But truly, the cross–Jesus' Cross–is a light burden for us because, though we suffer with him and like him, we are no longer responsible for carrying the weight of our righteousness, or anyone else's. This indeed is a light burden.
In college, I struggled for a time with an eating disorder, and praise God he has healed me. It truly was a miracle, and one of the things that helped the most was realizing how common my struggle was, and sharing it with others.
I pray that Rene you will know the sweetness of God's healing, but even more than that, you will realize how much Jesus loves you in the midst of your battle, in the midst of your total inability to overcome on your own…Often times, in my weakest moments is when I realize the most how much Jesus cares for me. He lets us go through our wildernesses so that we can realize that it is He alone who saves, and not we ourselves. I know that I try to clean up my dirty, but right there in the middle of me trying to "make myself presentable" I realize that He loves me this way. Jesus wants me to know, and you to know, that this way we are right now, He loves us perfectly, completely. We don't need to add anything else or change anything. Resting in this truth, He alone makes us blossom with new life, bringing it out of our dead works-righteousness wood. May all of the SRT community be blessed today by His Grace Alone!
Thanks for that explanation. I knew all that stuff, but didnt put it together in my mind. This really clarified and brought more meaning to the prayer. Have a blessed day.
Wow! As I read Galatians 6:14 I was hit hard. As for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I was faced with the realization of, “how many times a day do I boast?” Whether inadvertently or not, I realize that I often boast and praise myself whether it be thinking I did a great job at work, or posting vacation photos to Facebook for all my friends to see what I’ve done. How many of us are guilty of this? I know I am! Social media is the perfect platform for us to boast about the things we feel we have done well with. Reading this verse made me realize that my accomplishments and things I am proud of are nothing compared to what Lord has done for us. A God so loving and gracious that gave up his Son for our sins is truly something to boast about! I don’t know if anyone else had this same take away as I did today, but this verse really opened my eyes.