Come in Fire and Power

Scotty Smith:  A Prayer for Seasons of a Cool to Cold Heart

     Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matt 24:12-14

     Jesus, it is pipe-freezing-cold outside this morning, and it’s supposed to get even colder. One of my first concerns today is for the poor and elderly in our community—those those whose homes are not insulated and heated well enough to withstand this kind of extreme cold. I pray for their safety but I also realize that loving you involves putting legs on my prayers. To whom would you send me today… in my neighborhood… in my city? Who should I call and check on?

     A concern for the poor is closely connected to your sobering words I just read in Matthew… words warning about the danger of our love growing cold. That’s a frightful thought, Jesus. I take it seriously, especially as I take stock of my heart relationship with you. When our affections for you chill, then our concern and compassion for others diminish as well. What a dastardly domino effect. What a dis-grace. What an un-gracing of life.

     May I never stop singing the last line in the hymn, O Sacred Head Now Wounded… “Should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for thee.”  That’s my earnest, impassioned prayer, Jesus. I don’t fear losing my salvation. I will stand firm to the end because of my standing in grace. But what could be worse than for my love for you to cool down, degree by degree, as I get older? Don’t let that happen to me, Jesus. Don’t let that happen. What could be worse than to finish the race with an ingrown, icy heart?

     I do not and will not trust in my love for you, but only in your love for me. I love you, Jesus, because you first loved me and gave yourself as a sacrifice of atonement—as a judgment-exhausting propitiation for my sins. And now it is impossible for you to love me more than you do right now, and you are committed to never loving me less. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

     Holy Spirit, breathe upon the embers of my heart and rekindle the love I first had for Jesus… when the gospel of grace was first applied to my heart… when nothing else mattered. Come, Holy Spirit, come… come in fire and power… preach the gospel to my heart today… right now, as though it was the very first time.  So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ kind and powerful name.