Be Thou My Vision - a beautiful Irish hymn that causes the soul to shudder. O for the vision and comtemplation of God to be so grand in my heart. I struggle with longing for such a hymn to be true of my soul, yet ever aware of how short I fall. That He would dwell in my heart by faith, that He would supersede all thoughts of success, the praise of men, earthly comforts and prestige. The true joy that shakes us to the soul is found in none of these things, only in the one who will always be our best thought. Be in tears, or in triumph, in victory or in pause - may his presence be our light. Thinking about my prayer life this morning has me a bit malcontent. A few striking quote for those of us who are "working hard" in ministry: When we depend on organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend on education, we get what education can do; when we depend on man, we get what man can do; but when we depend on prayer, we get what God can do -- A.C. Dixon This perpetual hury of business and company ruins me in soul if not the body. More solitude and earlier hours! Isuspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. Hence I am lean and cold and hard. I had better allot two hours or an hour and a half daily. I have been keeping too later hours, and hence have had but a hurried half-hour in the morining to myself. Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without a due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer -- almighty prayer, I am ready to say--and why not? For that it is almight is only through the gracious ordination of the God of loving truth. On then, pray, pray, pray!-- William Wilberforce - Early 19th century English Politician We need hearts that are captive to His Grace, enthralled by His Beauty, nourished by His Truth, overflowing with His Goodness, so that we might be a fragrance worthy of Christ in the World. Praying that I might pray today in the midst of my distracted world Out.

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