Skip to content ↓

It Is All A Snare To Me

Pastoral Prayer

Sometimes it is good and helpful when others give us words to pray. Over the years, many have prayed the prayers of the Puritans through books like The Valley of Vision. This prayer, titled Self Depreciation is as good and helpful as any of them, for it gives words to universal experiences.

My every sense, member, faculty, affection is a snare to me, I can scarce open my eyes but I envy those above me, or despise those below.

I covet honor and riches of the mighty, and am proud and unmerciful to the rags of others; if I behold beauty it is a bait to lust, or see deformity, it stirs up loathing and disdain; how soon do slanders, vain jests, and wanton speeches creep into my heart!

Am I comely? What fuel for pride!

Am I deformed? What an occasion for repining!

Am I gifted? How I lust after applause!

Am I learned? How I despise what I have not!

Am I in authority? How prone to abuse my trust, make will my law, exclude others’ enjoyments, serve my own interests and policy!

Am I inferior? How much I grudge others’ pre-eminence!

Am I rich? How exalted I become!

You know that all these are snares by my corruptions, and that my greatest snare is myself.

I bewail that my apprehensions are dull, my thoughts mean, my affections stupid, my expressions low, my life unbeseeming; yet what can you expect of dust and levity, of corruption but defilement?

Keep me ever mindful of my natural state, but let me not forget my heavenly title, or the grace that can deal with every sin.


  • The Stranger

    The Stranger: A Short Film For You

    Based on a true story and inspired by the truth that character comes before competence, “The Stranger” is an honest, light-hearted and meaningful picture of what it means to truly serve others.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 9)

    A La Carte: The singer who changed the course of my life / Stay on the line / Incompatible thick communities / Lulla-Bible? / The solution is not megachurch / Who were the Anabaptists? / and more.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 8)

    A La Carte: 15 ways to discern false teaching / The queering of history / The best part of my day / 6 kinds of hearers of God’s Word / Countering Muslim attacks on the Bible / Kindle deals / and more.

  • The Wonder of the Human Face

    The Wonder of the Human Face

    Then there are the wonders of human ingenuity: the machines, the inventions, the works of art. One lifetime is not nearly enough to explore or appreciate even the smallest fraction of them all.

  • A La Carte Collection cover image

    A La Carte (July 7)

    A La Carte: A Christian patriot and his wayward nation / Outprinting the prosperity gospel / The organic church / A stranger in my homeland / Friendship’s faithful wounds / Sharing the gospel with someone who keeps rejecting it / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Pray Until You Feel Like It

    It is wise to set aside a time and place to pray—to build the habit and to then maintain it. But creating the habit may not always create the desire.