# The Valley of Vision – “My enemy is within the citadel”

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/04/10/the-valley-of-vision-my-enemy-is-within-the-citadel/
- Published: 2009-04-10T18:40:53-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“Compassionate Lord,

Thy mercies have brought me to the dawn of another day. Vain will be its gift unless
I grow in grace, increase in knowledge, ripen for spiritual harvest. Let me this
day know Thee as Thou art, love Thee supremely, serve Thee wholly, admire Thee fully.
Through grace let my will respond to Thee, knowing that power to obey is not in 
me, but that Thy free love alone enables me to serve Thee. Here then is my empty
heart, overflow it with Thy choicest gifts; here is my blind understanding, chase
away its mists of ignorance.

O ever watchful Shepherd, lead, guide, tend me this day; without Thy restraining
rod I err and stray. Hedge up my path lest I wander into unwholesome pleasure, and
drink its poisonous streams; direct my feet that I be not entangled in Satan’s secret
snares, nor fall into his hidden traps. Defend me from assailing foes, from evil
circumstances, from myself.

My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature; they cling to me as my very skin;
I cannot escape their contact. In my rising up and sitting down they barnacle me;
they entice with constant baits; my enemy is within the citadel. Come with almighty
power and cast him out, pierce him to death, and abolish in me every particle of
carnal life this day.”

–“Morning” in _The Valley of Vision_,  Ed. Arthur Bennett (Carlisle, PA: Banner 
of Truth, 1975/2002), 216-7.

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