Today’s prayer from The Valley of Vision is entitled, “God the Spirit.” The prayer is an earnest plea for the power of the Spirit’s abiding presence, as evidenced by the opening line:

O Lord God,
I pray not so much for graces as for the Spirit himself,
because I feel his absence,
and act by my own spirit in everything.
Give me not weak desires but the power of his presence,
for this is the surest way to have all his graces…

The notion here is that the gift of the Spirit is to be desired beyond any other gifts of the Spirit. Whatever one’s spiritual giftedness, the greater gift is the one upon which all other gifts are predicated: the divine Spirit dwelling bodily within me, transforming and sanctifying me, conforming me ever more fully into the image of Christ.

Gift, greater than gifts.

Save me from great hindrances,
from being content with a little measure of the Spirit,
from thinking thou wilt not give me more.
When I feel my lack of him, light up life and faith,
for when I lose thee I am either in the dark and cannot see thee,
or Satan and my natural abilities content me with a little light,
so that I seek no further for the Spirit of life.

Sometimes I am content with only a little measure of the Spirit.
Sometimes Satan or my flesh makes me content only a little light.

But this contentment is always fleeting, never eternal. For we are made for communion with the Triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit. There is a longing within each human heart to know and to be known, to love and to be loved.

Am I content with a little measure of the Spirit?
Or an outpouring?

Am I content with a little light?
Or the shekinah glory of the Living God?

Which do I desire?