To think that my Lord might take some delight in me? It makes my head explode!
...Let our teaching tend toward this goal: to urge the timid to constancy, the proud to fear, the bold to reflection, the lukewarm to fervor, the boisterous to silence, the speechless to a word of exhortation, the impatient to gentleness, the careless to vigilance, the cruel to forbearance, the hasty and demanding to restraint.Here's what I think: It is good to know our gifts, to use them, to enjoy them, to offer them to God.
It is better to remember that God means to make us perfect, nothing less. To do so, He will be not only rearranging the furniture, but gutting and rebuilding the entire house.
As He does so, that feature which we thought the best and most attractive may, for a while be torn down or put in some less prominent position. (Since the men in my family usually die of stroke, I expect that one day my wit and verbal facility will be taken from me, so this reflection has great force for me.)
What I must learn to prize, what I need God to teach me, is that what I have and what I can do are not the most important thing. What is most important is Who has me and what HE can do.
Lord,
You heal all things and bring all to perfection.
Now that I have soiled and broken my gifts, my very self,
I bring it all to You for You to clean and mend,
So that all my days I may rejoice in Your glory,
Who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God,
in glory everlasting.