In Prayer

O Lord,

In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world,
   and on the broad ocean my soul triumphs
   over all evils on the shores of mortality.
Time, with its happy pleasures and cruel disappointments, never appears so inconsiderate as when I'm praying.
In prayer I see myself as nothing;
   I find my heart going after you with intensity,
   and long with tremendous thirst to live to you.
Blessed be the strong winds of the Spirit
   that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish,
   and nothing seems important
   but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, and anxieties disappear
   and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively
   thoughts at what you are doing for your church,
   and I long for you to get yourself a great name
   from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life,
   and taste heavenly joys;
   entering into the eternal world
   I can give myself to you with all my heart,
   to be yours for ever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in your hands,
   to be entirely at your disposal
   having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers,
   sinners, the church, your kingdom to come,
   with greatest freedom and ardent hopes,
      as a son to his father,
      as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer
   and never to stop praying.

Act of Approach

Kind Lord,

I praise you continually for giving me permission
   to approach your throne of grace,
   and to spread my wants and desires before you.
I am not worthy of your blessings and mercies
   for I am far gone from original righteousness;
My depraved nature reveals itself in disobedience and rebellion
My earlier years discovered in me discontent, pride, envy and revenge.
Remember not the sins of my youth,
   nor the multiplied transgressions of later years,
      my failure to use wisely my time and talents,
      my abuse of your mercies and spiritual helps,
      my wasted Sunday rest days,
      my perverted seasons of grace,
      my long neglect of your great salvation,
      my disregard of the Friend of sinners.

While I confess my guilt, help me to feel it deeply,
   with self-abhorrence and self-despair, yet
   to remember that there is hope in you,
   and to see the Lamb that takes away sin.
Through him may I return to you,
   listen to you,
   trust in you,
   delight in your law,
   obey you,
   be upheld by you.
Preserve my understanding from error,
   my affections from love of idols,
   my lips from speaking deceit,
   my conduct from the stain of sinful behavior,
   my character from the appearance of evil,
      that I may be harmless,
      blameless,
      rebukeless,
      exemplary,
      useful,
      light-giving,
      prudent,
      zealous for your glory
         and the good of my fellow-men.

Covenant

Lord Jesus,
Would you grant me the favor of being led by you,
   under the directions of your acts of provision
   and your word?
Please grant me your blessings along with bitter things,
   to brighten and quicken me,
   and not to depress me and make me lifeless;
Grant me, like Gideon of old, signs of direction,
   by removing things that discourage me;
And may you also grant me support beneath the shadow of your sympathy when I am tempted.
Accept my unceasing thanks
   that I am not cast off from your hand
   as a darkened star of a rudderless ship.
Please do not allow me to live
   beyond my usefulness;
Cast me not under the feet of
   pride, injustice, riches, worldly greatness,
   or the selfish oppression of men;
Help me to wait patiently, silently upon you,
   not to be filled with anger or to speak foolishly
Let your mercy follow me while I live,
   and help me to submit myself to your will.
Take my heart and hold it in your hand;
   write upon it reverence to yourself with an inscription that time and eternity cannot erase.
To your grace and the care of your covenant
   I commit myself, in sickness and in health,
      for you have overcome the world,
      fulfilled the law,
      accomplished justifying righteousness,
      swallowed up death in victory,
      and taken all power everywhere.
Mark this covenant with your own blood
   in the court of forgiving mercy;
Attach unto it your name in which I believe,
   for it is sealed by my unworthy mortal hand.

Confidence

O God, you are very great!

My calling is to approach you with godly fear and humble confidence,
   for the way you stoop down to me is equal to your grandeur
   and your goodness is your glory.
I am unworthy, but still you welcome me;
   I am guilty, but your are merciful;
   I am penniless but your riches are unsearchable.
You have shown boundless compassion towards me
   by not sparing your Son,
   and by freely giving me all things in him;
This is the foundation of my hope,
   the refuge of my safety,
   the new and living way to approach you,
   the thing which creates in me that conviction of sin,
      that brokenness of heart, and self-despair,
      which will cause me to love the gospel.
Happy are they who are Christ's,
   in him at peace with you, Father,
      justified from all things,
      delivered from coming wrath,
      made heirs of future glory;
O Give me such deadness to the world,
   such love to the Savior,
   such attachment to his church,
   such devotedness to his service,
      as shows that I am a recipient of his salvation.
May every part of my character and conduct
   make a serious and pleasant impression on others,
   and compel them to ask the way to the Master.
Let no incident of life, whether pleasing or painful,
   injure the prosperity of my soul
   but rather increase it.
Send me your help,
   for your appointments are not meant
      to make me independent of you,
   and the best spiritual helps will be meaningless
      without your added blessings.

To Be Fit For God

O Maker and Sustainer of all things,

Day and night are yours,
   heaven and earth declare your glory;
but I, a creature of your power and vast wealth,
   have sinned against you by resisting
      the promptings of my conscience,
      the demands of your law
      the calls of your gospel
   yet I live under the governance of a given hope.
Deliver me, I pray, from worldly attitudes
   for I am born from above and bound for glory.
May I see and long after holiness
   as the beauty and dignity of the soul.
Let me never slumber,
   never lose my assurance,
   never fail to wear spiritual armor when passing through enemy land.
Fit me for every situation and circumstance;
Stay my mind upon you and turn my trials
   to blessings
   that they may draw out my gratitude and praise
   as I see their design and effects.
Please cause my obedience to your will to be holy, natural, and delightful.
Refine all my values by clear, consistent, and influential views of divine truth.
Let me never undervalue or neglect any part of your revealed will.
May I appropriately esteem the doctrine and practice of the gospel,
   prizing its commands as well as its promises.
Will you sanctify me in every relationship, position, project and life situation?
   that if I prosper I will not be overly exalted,
   and if I suffer I will not be over-sorrowful.
Balance my mind in all the various circumstances that come to me
   and help me to cultivate an attitude
   that makes every duty a spiritual privilege.
Thus may I be content,
   be a glory to you
   and an example to others.

Love Shed Abroad

Gracious God,

My heart praises you for the wonder of your love in Jesus;
He is heaven's darling, but is for me
   the incarnate, despised, rejected,
   crucified sin-bearer;
In him your grace has almost out-graced itself
In him your love to rebels has reached its height
O to love you with a a love like this
My heart is stone, please melt it with your love
My heart is locked, let love be the master key to open it
O Father, I adore you for your great love
   in the gift of Jesus,
O Jesus, I bless you for laying down your life for me,
O Holy Spirit, I thank you for revealing to me this mystery
Great God, let your Son see in me the purpose of his cross
Bring me away from my false trusts to rest in him,
   and him only.
Let me not be so callous to his merit
   as not to love him
  so indifferent to his blood
   as not to desire cleansing.
Lord Jesus, Master, Redeemer, Savior
   come and take entire possession of me;
   this is your right by purchase.
In the arms of love enfold and subdue
   my willful spirit.
Please take, sanctify, and use my every faculty;
I am not ashamed of my hope
   nor has my confidence led me into confusion.
I trusted in you regarding my innumerable sins,
   and you have cast them behind your back.
I trusted in you when evils encompassed me
   and you brought me out into a wealthy place.
I trusted in you in an hour of distress
   and you did not fail me, though faith trembled.
O God of the eternal choice,
O God of the restored possession purchased on the tree
O God of the effectual call,
Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
   I adore your glory, honor, majesty, power, and dominion for ever.

Christian Love

It is your will that I should love you
   with heart, soul, mind, strength,
   and my neighbor as myself.
But I am not sufficient for these things.
There is, by nature, no pure love in my soul;
Every desire in me is turned away from you;
I am bound, as a slave, to lust,
I cannot love you, lovely as you are
   until you set me free.
By grace I am your freed slave and would serve you,
   for I believe you are my God in Jesus,
   and that through him I am bought back from slavery,
   and my sins are forgiven.
With this freedom I wish I would always obey you,
   but I cannot walk in liberty today,
   any more than I could first attain it on my own.
May your Spirit draw me nearer to you
   and your ways.
You are the end goal of all the helps that draw and keep me near to you,
   for if they lead me not to you,
   I go away empty.
Order all my ways by your holy Word
   and make your commandments the joy of my heart,
   that by them I may have a happy relationship with you.
May I grow in your love and display it to all.

Spirit of love, make me like the loving Jesus;
   give me his kind attitude
   his generous actions
   that I may shine before men to your glory.
The more you do in love in me and by me,
   humble me more;
   keep me meek, lowly,
   and always ready to give you honor.

Christlikeness

Father of Jesus,


Dawn is here again, but without your light within me 

no outward light can benefit me;

Give me the saving lamp of your Spirit that I may see you,

the God of my salvation, the delight of my soul,

rejoicing over me in love.

I give my heart to your watchful care,

for I know its treachery and power;

Guard its every opening from the wily enemy,

Give me quick awareness of his deadly arts,

Help me to recognize his bold disguise as an angel of light,

and command him to depart.

May my words and works allure others to the highest walks of faith and love!

May sluggish saints be inspired to greater diligence by my example!

May those of this world be won to delight in knowing you!

May the timid and wavering be warned of coming doom by my zeal for Jesus!

Cause me to be a mirror of your grace,

to show others the joy of being your servant,

May my lips be well-tuned instruments

sounding your praise,

Let a halo of heavenly-mindedness

sparkle around me

And a lamp of kindness be a sunbeam on my path.

Teach me the happy art of 

attending to temporary things

with a mind intent on what is eternal.

Send me forth to have compassion

on the ignorant and miserable.

Help me to walk as Jesus walked,

my only Savior and perfect model,

his mind my inward guest

his meekness my clothing

Let my place of happiness be amongst the poor in spirit,

my delight the gentle ranks of the meek.

Let me always put others before myself,

and find in true humility

my inheritance of both earthly and heavenly worlds.

Openness

Openness

Lord of Immortality,

Before whom angels bow and archangels veil their faces,

enable me to serve you with reverence and godly fear.

You who are spirit and require truth in my inner being

help me to worship you in spirit and truth.

You who are righteous,

let me not permit sin to live in my heart,

or indulge a worldly attitude,

or seek satisfaction in things that perish.

I am fast approaching the time

when earthly pursuits and possessions

will appear meaningless

when it will not matter whether I have been

rich or poor,

successful or disappointed,

admired or despised.

But it will be eternally important that I have

mourned for sin,

hungered and thirsted after righteousness,

sincerely loved the Lord Jesus,

and gloried in his cross.

May my highest happiness be found in these things!

Produce in me those virtues and attitudes

that make serving you perfect freedom.

Expel from my mind all sinful fear and shame,

so that with firmness and courage I may

confess the Redeemer before people,

go forth with him bearing his reproach,

be zealous with his knowledge,

be filled with his wisdom,

walk with his carefulness,

ask help of him in all things,

go back to the Scriptures for his orders,

rest my mind on his peace,

knowing that nothing can happen to me

without his permission, plan and oversight.

Refuge

I have decided that I would allow myself the liberty of commenting from time to time as a precursor to posting my most recent revised prayer.  Probably no one will read it anyway.


One of the things I appreciate about these prayers is the deep understanding that their authors show of the awful precariousness of life.  Life is dangerous.  Snares and pits abound.  Fightings within and fears without - as the old hymn says.

We are so blithe these days.  We have Disney-fied our lives.  Everything is fine.  

"How are you?", people ask.
"I'm fine", we lie.


These puritans were not like this.  They understood how much is at stake in this life and how prone to wandering we are.  I'll say more about this in future posts, but what I love in these prayers is that they show an urgency.  There is a sense in which they believed that they needed God to answer their prayers with help, or they would surely fall headlong.  There was a Jewish King long ago who wrote similar prayers...

O Lord,

Whose power is infinite and wisdom infallible,

I pray that you would order things in such a way 

   that they may neither hinder,

nor discourage me,

nor prove obstacles to the progress of your cause;

Stand between me and all strife, that no evil befall me,

and no sin corrupt my gifts, zeal, and accomplishments;

May I follow duty and not any foolish device of my own;

Permit me not to labor at work which you will not bless,

that I may serve you without disgrace or debt;

Let me dwell in your most secret place under your shadow,

where there is safe, impenetrable protection from

the arrow that flies by day,

the disease that walks in darkness,

the strife of speech,

the malice of ill-will,

the hurt of unkind talk,

the snares of socializing with others,

the perils of youth,

the temptations of middle-age,

the mournings of old age,

the fear of death.

I am totally dependent upon you for support, counsel, and comfort.

Uphold me by your free Spirit,

and may I not think it enough for you to keep me from falling,

but may I always go forward, always abounding in the work you give me to do.

Strengthen me by your Spirit in my inner self for every purpose of my Christian life.

All my riches I give to the shadow of the safety that is in you - 

my new name in Christ

my body, soul, talents, character,

my success, spouse, children, friends, work,

my present, my future, my end.

Take them all, they are yours, and I am yours,

now and forever.

Spiritual Helps

Eternal Father,

It is amazing love,

that you have sent your Son

to suffer in my place,

that you have given the Spirit

to teach, comfort, guide,

that you have allowed the ministry of angels

to put a wall of protection around me

All heaven is laboring for the welfare of a poor worm

Permit your unseen servants to be ever active on my behalf

and to rejoice when grace expands in me.

May you never allow them to rest until my fight is over

and I stand victorious on salvation's shore.

Grant that my inclination to evil,

my deadness to good,

my resistance to your Spirit's motions,

may never provoke you to abandon me.

May my hard heart awake your pity, not your wrath,

And if the enemy gets an advantage through my corruption,

let it be seen that heaven is mightier than hell,

that those who are for me are greater than those against me

Arise to my help in richness of covenant blessings,

Keep me feeding in the pastures of your strengthening Word

searching Scripture to find you there.

If my my waywardness is visited with a blow,

enable me to receive correction meekly,

to bless the reproving hand,

to discern the motive of rebuke,

to respond promptly, and return to doing the good work.

Let all your fatherly dealings make me a partner of your holiness.

Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees,

and that when I rise it may be to loftier heights of devotion.

May my every cross be sanctified,

every loss be gain,

every denial a spiritual advantage,

every dark day a light of the Holy Spirit,

every night of trial a song.

Introduction

Julie & Julia.

This is what finally inspired me to do this. We watched that movie one night not so long ago and I thought it was admirable that the lady just decided to take on the challenge (if you haven't watched the movie, the challenge was to cook through the entire Julia Child's cook book in a year).

I have dreamed about revising the puritan prayers that are compiled in the book Valley of Vision for a long time. I have actually re-written some of them already for personal and corporate devotional use. I've also had some discussions with the publishers of that book (Banner of Truth) about the possibility of publishing an updated version for modern readers. So far, they think it is a good idea, but not one that warrants doing.

My view is that we as Christians need to have a firm grasp on the past as we strain forward to what lies ahead. To relinquish either tends to leave us unbalanced.

Sometimes it is helpful to update older resources to make them more accessible for modern users. This is the same reason that the work of creating new Bible translations needs to be ongoing. We need God's words in our language.

I got the idea for doing this a long time ago. But it wasn't until I saw the revised version of Spurgeon's Morning and Evening done by Alstair Begg that I became convinced of the viability (and, I think, need) of such an undertaking.

Some will say, "It ain't broke - don't try to fix it!" Others would want to go further in modernizing the language. My goal is to update the verbage in such a way that modern readers find it less off-putting, while preserving as much of the grand poetry and timbre of the original.

If I would compare what I'm aiming at with a Bible translation method, I'm aiming at something between King James (too antiquated) and the NIV (too paraphrased). If I could provide a good "ESV-type" version of Valley of Vision, I would be well satisfied.

I would be happy to hear your thoughts: On the subject in general, what VoV has meant to you in your spiritual life, or the actual updating work itself. I hope to meet other sojourners as I take this journey!

Chief Sinner,

Andrew LeCleir