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Sunday September 14, 2008

Regeneration: A Prayer

Continuing this theme of Sunday prayers, here is a wonderful prayer drawn once more from The Valley of Vision. This prayer is titled “Regeneration” and you may recognize it as the foundation of the Sovereign Grace song “O Great God.” I read this one yesterday and was just drawn to the amazing descriptions the beautiful language and the deep spiritual truths.

O God of the highest heaven,
occupy the throne of my heart,
take full possession and reign supreme,
lay low every rebel lust,
let no vile passion resist thy holy war;
manifest thy mighty power,
and make me thine forever.
Thou art worthy to be
praised with my every breath,
loved with my every faculty of soul,
served with my every act of life.
Thou hast loved me, espoused me, received me,
purchased, washed, favored, clothed,
adorned me,
when I was a worthless, vile soiled, polluted.
I was dead in iniquities,
having no eyes to see thee,
no ears to hear thee,
no taste to relish thy joys,
no intelligence to know thee;
But thy Spirit has quickened me,
has brought me into a new world as a
new creature,
has given me spiritual perception,
has opened to me thy Word as light, guide, solace, joy.
Thy presence is to me a treasure of unending peace;
No provocation can part me from thy sympathy,
for thou hast drawn me with cords of love,
and dost forgive me daily, hourly.
O help me then to walk worthy of thy love,
of my hopes, and my vocation.
Keep me, for I cannot keep myself;
Protect me that no evil befall me;
Let me lay aside every sin admired of many;
Help me to walk by thy side, lean on thy arm,
hold converse with thee,
That I may be salt of the earth
and a blessing to all.

What book are you most looking forward to reading this fall?

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Comments (5) »


1. Kaysie
September 14, 2008
6:52 PM

That is beautiful. I love this prayer.
How I wish my prayers were filled with honest richness…


2. Susan
September 14, 2008
9:11 PM

On a day so consumed with grief that I could not formulate a prayer for myself - I thank you for this wonderful prayer. I now offer it up to our Beloved Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ - may He Bless you.


3. Ian Hall
September 14, 2008
9:33 PM

It is a marvellous prayer. Christians should note that there is a distinct absence of continually repeating the Lord’s name at the beginning of each line. I notice in the public prayers of so many of God’s people that such a repetition is prevalent. Sometimes this habit becomes so bad that it verges on taking the Lord’s name in vain.


4. Joe
September 15, 2008
8:24 AM

A beautiful and poetic prayer, filled with deep meaning.


5. Thomas Sullivan
September 15, 2008
5:00 PM

Great Prayer.

This is an excellent book, and I love the version narrated by Max Mclean. Since many of these prayers came from the book, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul - Phillip Doddridge, I narrated the prayers of that book for Sermon Audio. I recommend as well a perusal of Doddridge’s prayers online here. books.google.com

http://books.google.com/books?q=editions:ISBN0766173534&id=oLEasdagwrMC

A historical note: This book was instrumental in Wilberforce’s conversion, so in the movie Amazing Grace, the camera closes in on the title in one scene of the movie, as the book lays on a table.