Devotional for March 20

 

Today's cross: Made with pewter and turquoise

from Santa Fe, New Mexico

Charles Wesley, 1739

FATHER of lights, from whom proceeds
Whate’er thy ev’ry creature needs:
Whose goodness providently nigh,
Feeds the young ravens when they cry;
To thee I look, my heart prepare;
Suggest and hearken to my prayer.

Since by thy light, myself I see
Naked, and poor, and void of thee,
Thine eyes must all my thoughts survey,
Preventing what my lips would say:
Thou seest my wants; for help they call,
And, ere I speak, thou know’st them all.

Thou know’st the baseness of my mind,
Wayward, and impotent, and blind;
Thou know’st how unsubdued my will,
Averse to good, and prone to ill;
Thou know’st how wide my passions rove,
Nor chek’d by fear, nor chamr’d by love.

Fain would I know, as known by thee,
And feel the indigence I see;
Fain would I all my vileness own,
And deep beneath the burden groan!
Abhor the pride that lurks within,
Detest and loathe myself and sin.

Ah, give me, Lord, myself to feel,
My total misery reveal:
Ah, give me Lord, (I still would say),
A heart to mourn, a heart to pray:
My business this, my only care,
My life, my every breath, be prayer.