In the midst of the turmoil
As my emotions take hold,
You are the shield of my heart.
Stand watch Lord, and protect,
Guard my heart from temptation.
Come Lord, and satisfy
Fill me with Your steadfast love.
Your beauty cannot be contained
Not in all of creation
Not in all my sight and sense.
Enlarge my vision, O Lord,
Broaden my mind and make it grow,
Open my heart to know Your love
Give me eyes to see You,
I long to gaze on Your beauty.
Without You Lord, I am dead
I wander away hopelessly lost
Nothing can compare with You
Your truth and Your beauty are my desire
To see Your glory is my deepest longing
To gaze on Your face is beyond compare.
Raise me to life again, to know You
Lead me back to Your paths.
Your ways are wonderful, O Lord,
To contemplate Your plans is wondrous to me.
You have shown me Your kindness
You have looked on me with mercy
And You have showered Your grace upon me.
I am such a wretched man
Yet Your grace is greater than my transgressions
You delight to give good gifts to me.
I have not wearied myself for You
I have squandered my inheritance.
To Your faithfulness and love
I have been unfaithful and adulterous.
Yet You have loved me everlastingly
And You fill my heart with sorrowful joy
As You show me my failings
And stir up the depths of my dead heart.
Only You Lord, can fill our hearts,
Only You can make us love compassion
Only You can break our hearts with love
Your love is greater than our coldness.
Only You can heal the cold dead heart
Only You can heal my broken heart,
Without You I am dead, and all the world
Is without compare to Your love.
Your love is better than life,
Though my heart and flesh may fail
I am Yours and You are mine
Now I know nothing can separate us.
---
I love writing poetry (or at least I like to think it's poetry - a bit presumptuous, maybe), but I realised that a lot of how I had been using this gift was initially for writing complaints or self-pity rants but I noticed that through writing God often draws me closer and He shows me more of the hope I have in Him, He show me that life is knowing Him and falling more in love with Him every day. It got me thinking, if I would ever consider writing love poetry to a girl that I loved, why would I not first devote myself to writing love poetry to God? The answer is that my deceitfully wicked heart needs a lot of work. My Creator, Saviour, Redeemer and King, deserves all my love first and foremost. The more I meditate on Him, the more I gaze on His beauty and glory, the more deeply I fall in love with Him, and I know that when I start writing, my love for God grows. It would be insanity to write love poetry to anyone else, if I have not first fallen deeply in love with God. A sure recipe for destruction. Indeed any love I have for anyone else would not be complete if my love does not flow from my love for God and the love He has for me. There is no-one in the world who I could love as much as I could love God, if He continues to open my eyes to see Him, and there surely is no-one in the world who could love me as much as God has already loved me everlastingly, and it is only by His love that I can love at all.
Read the Psalms, the Warrior-Poet King David knows this, and I want the same deep relationship that David has with God. I want every part of my being to pant for God as a deer pants for water. If I cannot see who I am fighting for, how can I fight? "His praise shall be our battlecry!" So to the saints reading this message, my brothers and sisters:
Ephesians 1:15-21
"For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come."
