Love-Rest in God

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My dear Lord

I depend wholly upon thee,

wean me from all other dependencies.

Thou art my all, thou dost overrule all and delight in me.

Thou art the foundation of goodness,

how can I distrust thee?

how be anxious about what happens to me?

In the light of thy preciousness

the world and all its enjoyments are

infinitely poor

I value the favours of men no more than pebbles.

Amid the blessings I receive from thee

may I never lose the heart of a stranger.

May I love thee, my Benefactor, in all my benefits,

not forgetting that my greatest danger

arises from my advantages.

Produce in me self-despair that will

make Jesus precious to me,

delightful in all his offices,

pleasurable in all his ways,

and may I love his commands

as well as his promises.

Help me to discern between true and false love,

the one consisting of supreme love to thee,

the other not,

the former uniting thy glory and man's happiness

that they may become one common interest,

the latter disjointing and separating them both,

seeking the latter with neglect of the former.

Teach me that genuine love is different in kind

from that wrought by rational arguments

or the motive of self-interest,

that such love is a pleasing passion affording

joy to the mind where it is.

Grant me grace to distinguish

between the genuine and the false,

and to rest in thee who art all love.

~ The Valley of Vision

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