faith and fullness

O God,

Thou hast taught me that Christ has all fullness
and so all plenitude of the Spirit,
      that all fullness I lack in myself is in Him…

… that it is my duty, out of a sense of emptiness,
to go to Christ, possess, enjoy His fullness as mine,
as if I had it in myself, because it is for me in Him;

that when I do this I am full of the Spirit,
as a fish that has got from the shore to the sea and has all fullness of waters to move in,

for when faith fills me, then I am full…

first faith, then fullness,
for this way makes me most empty,
and so most fit for the Spirit to fill.

Help me to delight more in what I receive from Christ,
   more in that fullness which is in Him,
the fountain of all His glory.

(The Valley of Vision, “Fullness in Christ”)