“When our hearts are full of God, sending up
holy desires to the throne of grace, we are then in our highest state, we are
upon the utmost heights of human greatness; we are not before kings and princes,
but in the presence and audience of the Lord of all the world, and can be no
higher till death is swallowed up in glory.”
— William Law (1686–1761)
There is a state, the highest
state, that the author, above, propounds. How is this state to be realised? It
is realised by sending up holy desires to the throne of grace. It is realised
through prayer, but not any old prayer. It is realised through prayer that
makes its very desire, holy. We too easily pass over that. Too easily do we
read into these words the word “desire,” forgetting “holy.”
Giving way to obedience in the
Spirit is rather unnatural, until Christ grabs us. Then service unto all
humankind is considered a privilege because of it is service unto the Lord, his
very self. But such a concept is so foreign, even among Christians, who, as a
matter of our being, are given to obedient seasons before we then slump.
But sending up holy desires to the
throne of grace is the sure-fire way to command from God the allegiances of his
angels, because of our intentional faithfulness. And there is a heavenly
reversal in play: by obedience we are found wrong when we may be right; we
endure hardship when we might deserve glory; when we have most reason to
complain, we don’t, and praise becomes us instead.
Sending up holy desires to the
throne of grace is home within every imaginable nuance of repentance. We glory in
the fact of our fallibility and vulnerability. To hold onto weakness is a
travesty. We should rather prefer our weaknesses exposed and dealt with,
without fear or derision.
This is a rare life; that
experiences the full measure of Christian humiliation.
Do We Really Desire Such a Life?
We are stuck in this life between
two awkward pillars of sensitivity: one is the rock of our own selfishness,
which promises fulfilment but lacks any, and the other is a hard place of
raucous demand to live a holy life; a state of being that looks like hell, but
one that’s absolutely heavenly to see from within.
Our typical repose is to sit on
the fence.
We want to be saved, and we know
we are, but we cannot rid ourselves of our worldly cringe. To pray in ways to
send up holy desires to the throne of grace appears attractive, but, all the
same, it’s a pipedream—until we give ourselves to God.
***
Jesus Christ doesn’t want 97% of
us. In sporting terms, he wants 110%. Of course, we fail him, again and again
and again. Praise God for his grace. What he wants is not our effort, but our sincere devotion. That is to achieve the
utmost heights of human greatness; to worship the Lord with joyous abandon.
© 2013 S. J. Wickham.
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