The Gift of Tears

Lord what I have come to desire Is a most uncommon gift

I pray to be purged by your fire Your Spirit my hard heart to sift

Surface in me the secret place Where I have hid away

Reveal it all by your great grace And sear my soul I pray

Sharp sudden pains of repentance Are what I desire most.

Lord fortify my remembrance For my iniquities are an unholy host

The holiness found in forgiveness,  The sanctifying pain

Are the beginning of true righteousness Where loss becomes real gain.

The gift of tears, the gift of tears

Your fire cleanses as it sears

And if repentance requires suffering

May my mourning become an offering.

I am no greater than my King.

Lord give the gift of repentance My pride, Lord devastate

Let humility become my sentence as You make the crooked straight

The gift of tears is what I need, for mourning is required

Oh Holy Spirit intercede and purge me with Your refiner’s fire

Cleanse me from besetting sin And forgive me Lord,  I pray

Search and try me without, within- Let this be my judgment day.

Against you alone have I sinned And you alone can forgive

Your kindness  is where it begins So by grace through faith I will live.

The gift of tears, the gift of tears

Your fire cleanses as it sears

And if repentance requires suffering

May my mourning become an offering.

Till sackcloth and ashes yield to wings.

2 Corinthians 7:10; John 16:8; Psalm 51:4; Ephesians 2:8-9

December 7, 2019

Anthony Foster