Results tagged “prayer”
A Prayer About Impossibilities (11/15/09 - 10 Comments)
Last week I posted a prayer by pastor Scotty Smith. Today it seemed like it would be good to post another one. This one stood out to me as one I needed to pray--a prayer about impossibilities. It is based on these words: "Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with men is possible with God.'" (Luke 18:27) ***** Merciful and mighty, Lord Jesus, how I need to wrestle with this hope this day. First of all,...
A Prayer About Heart Guarding (11/08/09 - 3 Comments)
For some time now pastor Scotty Smith has been posting prayers at his blog. This one, in particular, caught my attention as a prayer that could come from the heart of any believer. ***** Heavenly Father, how I long for the Day when I will no longer be tempt-able, deceive-able, or even capable of worshipping any other "god" but you. I so look forward to an eternity of giving you the adoration, affection, attention and...
A Minister's Strength (10/18/09 - 8 Comments)
The prayer immediately before a sermon is one where the congregation is prone to drift off. This prayer is usually a minister's plea for God to grant him words to speak and for God to grant the ability to hear and understand for those who listen to the sermon. I've noticed, though, that when I am the one who is to preach immediately afterward, this prayer takes on a new dimension of desperation. The one...
A Nursery for Heaven (10/04/09 - 2 Comments)
This is one of my favorite prayers in The Valley of Vision. It is a prayer for family, asking God not only for grace in raising a family in a way that brings him glory but also asking God for grace in the lives of other family members. I think it is notable that a prayer for family first begins with soul-searching prayer about self. In fact it moves seamlessly from adoration of God to...
A Colloquy On Rejoicing (09/19/09 - 5 Comments)
I'll be honest. What first stood out to me about this prayer (drawn from The Valley of Vision) was the title, "A Colloquy On Rejoicing." I immediately looked up colloquy and found that it is simply a kind of formal conversation and that the word is often used in a religious context. So it makes good sense here. This prayer represents a Christian's conversation with himself as he reflects on his desire, his responsibility, to...
A Minister's Bible (09/13/09 - 1 Comments)
Every now and again I like to post a prayer drawn from The Valley of Vision. Allow me to do so again. Recently I shared the prayer titled "A Minister's Preaching." This one is similar, titled "A Minister's Bible." It is geared toward pastors, obviously, but what I really like about it is the expression of utter dependency upon God that if a minister's reading of Scripture and his preaching of Scripture are to have...
A Disciple's Renewal (08/23/09 - 2 Comments)
Once again this Sunday I turned to The Valley of Vision and found there a great prayer. This one is titled "A Disciple's Renewal." ***** O My Saviour, help me. I am so slow to learn, so prone to forget, so weak to climb; I am in the foothills when I should be in the heights; I am pained by my graceless heart, my prayerless days, my poverty of love, my sloth in the heavenly...
A Minister's Preaching (08/16/09 - 3 Comments)
This week a friend, a pastor, sent to me one of his favorite prayers from The Valley of Vision. Since it is a prayer by a minister for his preaching, it is one I had never paused over. But what a great prayer it is. ***** My Master God, I am desired to preach today, but go weak and needy to my task; Yet I long that people might be edified with divine truth, that...
A Prayer Following Prayer (08/02/09 - 1 Comments)
This is one of my favorites from The Valley of Vision as much for the concept of the prayer as its actual words. This is a prayer meant to follow prayer. Read it and I'm sure you'll see, as I do, just how weak and listless my prayers actually are and how much even my best efforts in prayer and praise and petition are in need of God's grace. Bewail your prayers and thank God...
Thine Has Been... (07/11/09 - 6 Comments)
I often share Puritan prayers on Sundays. This week, though, it seemed appropriate to post a prayer for the Lord's Day Eve--Saturday night. I often find myself telling young people that, if they wish to make Sunday a meaningful day of worship and fellowship, they need to plan ahead and not stay up until 3 in the morning. A prayer like this, I think, helps orient the heart toward the day to come. ***** Another...
Meeting God (06/21/09 - 3 Comments)
Here is another great Puritan prayer, this one beseeching God to allow the Christian to live a life filled with prayer, filled with grace, filled with the Spirit. What a perfect prayer to make your own on this Lord's Day! ***** Great God, in public and private, in sanctuary and home, may my life be steeped in prayer, filled with the spirit of grace and supplication, each prayer perfumed with the incense of atoning blood....
Contentment (06/07/09 - 4 Comments)
I mentioned a week ago that last week had been a long and difficult struggle to find joy. W week later I feel that God has really brought me through a tough time, but a time that was not in any way useless or wasted. This morning, when I sat down with The Valley of Vision, I came to the prayer titled "Contentment." It ministered to me this morning. Isn't it funny how a prayer...
A Praying Life (06/01/09 - 11 Comments)
Any time I write a review of a book dealing with prayer I feel the need to point out that bookstore shelves are already groaning under the weight of such books. There are hundreds, thousands probably, of books on prayer. A new one is going to need to be good--very good--to supplant the excellent resources already available. Paul Miller, perhaps a bit reluctantly, takes on this challenge in his new book A Praying Life: Connecting...
Longings After God (05/31/09 - 3 Comments)
Through the past couple of weeks I have been fighting for joy, fighting to find joy in the journey. It has been one of those times that I've been longing for God but have seemingly found so little of him. And so this morning, when I opened up The Valley of Vision, as I so often do on a Sunday morning, I was encouraged by this prayer titled "Longings After God." My dear Lord, I...
Reliance (05/17/09 - 4 Comments)
Here is another selection from Arthur Bennett's The Valley of Vision. This old prayer confesses to God a reliance on self, and as it does so, it teaches both the folly of such reliance and the joy of relying fully on God. "When thou art angry towards me for my wrongs I try to pacify thee by abstaining from future sin." Who can say that he has not, at one time or another, done this...
Happiness (05/03/09 - 1 Comments)
Here is another prayer from Arthur Bennett's The Valley of Vision. This is a prayer titled simply "Happiness." As I read the prayer I was particularly drawn to these words: "How precious is time, and how painful to see it fly with little done to good purpose! I need thy help." How much time I waste and how painful it is to me to see if fly on by, wasted, unused, with little done to...
Humility in Service (04/19/09 - 3 Comments)
It has been too long, I think, since I've posted a prayer from The Valley of Vision. This one, titled "Humility in Service," seems appropriate for a Sunday morning as the day will undoubtedly bring us many opportunities to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ and many opportunities to share the Good News with those who do not yet know the Lord. Mighty God, I humble myself for faculties misused, opportunities neglected, words ill-advised,...
The Posture of Prayer (04/08/09 - 9 Comments)
In the past week or two I have been thinking a lot about my times of personal devotion, trying to see where I have allowed them to become just the "same old"--where I may have fallen into bad habits or lazy customs. I have been thinking about what I can do to make these times that will serve to help me grow in godliness while at the same ensuring that they are opportunities to bring...
The Cross He Bore - Prayerful Submission (03/30/09 - 4 Comments)
This is day two of our thirteen-day trek through Frederick Leahy's The Cross He Bore. Today Leahy looks to Jesus' words of submission to the Father. "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will" (Matt 26:39). Here is a favorite quote: ***** How clearly the true humanity of Christ is seen in Gethsemane, more so than in much of our standard dogmatics!...
The Wings of Prayer (03/08/09 - 2 Comments)
While Charles Spurgeon has justly gone down in history as "the Prince of Preachers," he was also a man who prayed very powerfully. Tony Capoccia has gone to the trouble of updating just a few of Spurgeon's prayers, removing some of the antiquated language and replacing it with language that is a bit more familiar to us. Though these prayers are clearly geared to corporate prayer, they are valuable even to individuals as we seek...