We walk in the valley of vision. The Lord is high and holy, meek and lowly. He brings us to the valley of vision. We live in the depths but see Him in the heights. We are hemmed in by mountains of sin but we gloriously behold His glory. We ought to pray that we learn by paradox
That the way down is the way up,
That to be low is to be high,
That the broken heart is the healed heart,
That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
That the repenting soul is the victorious soul
That to have nothing is to possess all,
That to bear the cross is to wear the crown
That to give is to receive
That the valley is the place of vision
We ought to know His day time stars can be seen by His deepest wells, but the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine. We ought to pray to find His light in our darkness. His life is our death, His joy is our sorrow, His grace is our sin, His riches our poverty and His glory in our valley.
The Trinity is the doctrine of three distinct persons in one; that is, there are three distinct persons in the one true being of God. He is the God of our salvation! We ought to adore the Heavenly Father, Son and eternal Spirit in one essence. We speak of the one essence of God in the Three in One as the one being of God. He brings sinners to His knowledge and His kingdom. The Father sent Jesus to redeem us and He has loved us in this special way of sending a Savior into the world to ransom us. Jesus has loved us by assuming man’s nature, He shed His own blood to wash away our sins and wrought righteousness to cover our dunghill-unworthiness. The Holy Spirit has loved us, and entered our hearts, and implanted there everlasting life. He has revealed Jesus in His glories to us. We ought to pray to the Three Persons and one God in blessings, praises, rejoicings, and delighting in Him. He loves us with a love so unmerited and so unspeakable. He is so wondrous and able to save the lost and raise them to glory. The Father we thank because of the fullness of grace in providing His Son as our substitute and to be His sheep, jewel or portion. Our Lord Jesus in the fullness of grace accepted, espoused and bound us in His love. The Holy Spirit we thank for giving us the fullness of grace exhibited as our salvation, implanted faith within us, subdued our stubborn heart and made us one with Him for ever. The Father is enthroned to hear our prayers, but Jesus also has His outstretched arm to take our petitions. The Holy Ghost is willing to help us in our infirmities because He shows us our need. He supplies words to pray within us and to strengthen us that we faint not in supplication. The Trinity commands the universe and He has commanded us to ask in prayer our supplications. It is things concerning His kingdom and our souls. We ought to pray as one baptism in the Threefold Name of God. Amen.
The will of God conquers all other wills; that is, if our wills run into each other God will conquer and win. The only enjoyment of life is found in Him; that is, we ought to feel engaged in His service. He is our all in all and He makes our enjoyments and they are no more then what He makes them. We ought to be well-pleased with His will according to whatever it is or should be in all respects. We ought not to decide in any affairs but resign all hope in Him and we ought to refer all to Him alone. We ought to pray to Him in knowing He is infinitely wise and cannot do amiss. We are sometimes in danger of deciding for ourselves what our lives should be. We ought to allow God to decide our future, because He gives us hope. We ought to rejoice that all things are at His disposal and we ought to delight to leave them there. If we do this, prayer turns wholly into praise. We ought to come to a point where all we can do is adore and bless Him alone. We could not repay Him for all His benefits. We might not know what to do but we may long to return; however, we have nothing to offer. We ought to rejoice that He does all things well. No one in heaven and on earth shares His honor. We ought to honor the Father and honor the Son and honor the Spirit. We cannot glorify His blessed name because we are unworthy. We must surrender soul and body to Him alone in a cheerful spirit of divine grace. We must know that He is author and finisher of our faith. The whole work of redemption is His alone. We must understand that all good found in us is a work of His gracious power and grace. We must have as our sole motive to will and do His good pleasure. We ought to cry “O God, it is amazing that men can talk so much about man’s creaturely power and goodness, when, if thou didst not hold us back every moment, we should be devils incarnate.” He has taught us by bitter experience about our total depravity as human beings. He has taught us of the necessity and sufficiency of His divine grace.
God is the source of all good who inhabits eternity. The heavens declare His glory and the earth His riches. The universe is His temple and He fills in immensity. According to His good pleasure He has created life and communicated happiness at His right hand through His Son. He makes us what we are and He has given us what we have. Everything belongs to Him alone. In Him we live and move and have our being. His providence orchestrates and sets the bounds of our habitation and He wisely administers all our affairs. We ought to thank Him for our riches in Jesus Christ. We have His unclouded revelation of Him in His Word. We behold His Person, character, grace glory, habilitation, sufferings, death and resurrection. We ask to feel a need of His continual saviorhood. We cry with Job, “I am vile,” with Peter, “I perish”, and with the publican, ‘Be merciful to me, a sinner.” We ask Him to subdue in us the love of sin. We need to know the need of renovation and forgiveness. We need to know this to serve and enjoy Him for ever. We ought to come to Him in the all-prevailing name of Jesus. We have nothing of our own to plead. We have no works, worthiness or promises. We are often going astray. We often do this knowing we oppose His authority. We do this often abusing His goodness. We must know that our guilt arises from our religious privileges. We have a low estimation of them and our failure to use them to our advantage. We are not careless of thy favour or regardless of His glory. We ought to ask God to impress in us deeply of His omnipresence because He is our path. We ought to say that God is my ways, my lying down, my end. (The Valley of Vision, xxiv-7).
