HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div

“And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.” Acts 16:14

Lord, it is You — You alone — who must open my heart. I need Your victorious, irresistible, effectual grace. I cannot save my own soul or repair my own ruin. Helpless, I look up to You. Lost and dying, I confide in You. I am a beggar who knocks, penniless and starving, at the gate of Your Heaven. It is my great encouragement that, when I am at my wit’s end, I am nearest to You.

And it is my heart, my Lord, that You must open. Not the outworks of my nature — the understanding, the intellect, the memory, the imagination; but the very citadel itself. Into the innermost room enter now, O King of mercy; and from that curtained shrine, reign over all the courts of the temple. Mine is a heart too long desecrated and profaned, but You will not despise it — You will transfigure it into Your Holy of holies.

And it is that I may love and obey the glorious truths of your Word. They are indeed familiar to me from my childhood; yet I do not grasp them, hold them, or rejoice in them — until Your Spirit teaches me. They are vague, pointless, inefficient — until You give them force and pricelessness. You must make them light, a guide, a solemn warning, a sweet consolation.