Week Six - "Be Light to My Eyes"

As a recap, here is the great prayer from Elizabeth Rhodes:

"Grant me, gracious Lord, a pure intention of heart, and a steadfast regard to your glory in all my actions. Possess my mind continually with your presence, and fill it with your love, that my whole delight may be to repose in the arms of your protection. Be light to my eyes, music to my ears, sweetness to my taste, and full contentment to my heart. Be my sunshine in the day, my food at the table, my repose in the night, my clothing in company, my succor in all necessities.
Lord Jesus, I give you my body, my soul, my substance, my fame, my friends, my liberty, and my life. Dispose of me, and all that is mine, as seems best to you, and to the glory of your blessed name. I am not my own, but yours; therefore claim me as your right, keep me as your charge, and love me as your child. Fight for me when I am assailed, heal me when I am wounded, and revive me when I am destroyed.
My Lord and my God, I ask you to give me patience in troubles, humility in comforts, constancy in temptations, and victory over all my ghostly enemies. Grant me sorrow for my sins, thankfulness for my benefits, fear of your judgments, love of your mercies, and mindfulness of your presence for evermore. Make me humble to my superiors and friendly to my equals, ready to please all and loathe to offend any; loving to my friends and charitable to my enemies. Give me modesty in my countenance, gravity in my behavior, deliberation in my speech, holiness in my thoughts, and righteousness in all my actions. Let your mercy cleanse me from my sins, and your grace bring forth in me the fruits of everlasting life.
Lord, let me be obedient without arguing, humble without feigning, patient without grudging, pure without corruption, mercy without lightness, sad without mistrust, sober without dullness, true without duplicity, fearing you without desperation, and trusting you without presumption. Let me joyful for nothing but that which pleases you, and sorrowful for nothing but what displeases you: that labor be my delight which is for you, and let all weary me that is not in you. Give me a waking spirit, and a diligent soul, that I may seek to know your will, and when I know it may I perform it faithfully to the honor and glory of your ever blessed name. Amen."

Chilcote took this prayer that is divided into four roughly equal parts and provided a theme for each section:
Part 1: Who is God to me? (first paragraph of prayer)
Part 2: What can I give to and ask of God? (second)
Part 3: How does God shape my life? (third)
Part 4: How do I live as a disciple of Christ? (fourth)

Today, we continue with part one from Chilcote.

Scripture

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all....if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” - 1 John 1:5,7

Meditation

It is virtually impossible to conceive of nothing. Perhaps I had something of a philosophical bent as a child, because I remember pondering the question of nothing. My father once had preached a sermon on creation, in which he said God created everything that exists out of nothing. As hard as I tried, I could never seem to find my way back to nothing. One thing was clear to me however. Whatever nothing was, it was dark. Light seemed to have a lot to do with God and the created world in which we live. “Let there be light” explained a lot to me in the midst of my quandry.

Early Jewish Christians who attempted to translate the Christian message into a vocabulary and into thought forms that made sense to the Greeks frequently employed the contrasting images of light and darkness. Our text for today from 1 John stands within this tradition. God is light. Light dispels darkness. To be a follower of Christ means we walk in the light. Charles Wesley’s hymn on creation develops the same themes and links the image of light, in particular, to God’s re-creative activity in our lives. In the same way that God penetrated darkness with glorious, recreative light at the beginning of time, God sends the Son – the light of the world – in the darkness of our hearts. The indwelling Christ empowers us, as God’s children, to declare the wonderful deeds of the One who calls us out of darkness into this marvelous light.

Prayer

Gracious Lord, God of Light and Love, you long for us to walk, not like children of the darkness nor the night, but like children of the light and of the day: Grant me a steady journey on the highway of holiness toward the light of the city of God, even Christ my Lord. Amen.

Part Seven coming next Monday...
pcraig