Prayer for Renewal

I have been reading and praying prayers from the book, Valley of Vision for a long time in my devotions. It is amazing that they seem so appropriate to my life and soul. I prayed this one today. It is comforting that long ago someone else felt the same way and today provides me with the vocabulary to pray my desires.

My favorite phrase is "Ride forth in me, thou King of kings and Lord of lords"

"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 race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.
Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,
meditate on thee,
gaze on thee,
sit like Mary at thy feet,
lean like John on thy breast,
appeal like Peter to thy love,
count like Paul all things dung.
Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be;
more decision in my character,
more vigor in my purposes,
more elevation in my life,
more fervor in my devotion,
more constancy in my zeal.
As I have a position in the world,
keep me from making the world my position;
May I never seek in the creature what can be found only in the creator;
Let not faith cease from seeking thee until it vanishes into sight.
Ride forth in me, thou King of kings and Lord of lords,
that I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.

Soul Preparation for partaking of the emblems of the Savior's death

Many churches observe the Lord's Supper the first of every month. The churches I have pastored up to this point has done this. Presently our family is worshipping at a delightful church that observes the sacrament every week.  It has lost nome if it's significance in my heart observing it more often - on the contrary my sensitivity to it has heightened over these months.

Below is a prayer from a book of puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision. Another blog prompted me to this prayer today that I have read many times.  This small book of prayers has meant so much to me over the years. It provides me the words that my vocabulary has a hard time coming up with but words that resonate deep in my soul. This prayer below especially is useful for preparation for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Someone that has appreciated this book too has typed all the prayer out and they are available online at this site and a few others. If you would are more auditory that visional and would like to use them as a part of you daily devotion, Max McLean has recorded the prayers on at CD that you can purchase from the Banner of Truth site.

So be more prepared for the Lord's Supper than the Super Bowl!

God of all good,
I bless thee for the means of grace;
teach me to see in them thy loving purposes
and the joy and strength of my soul.
Thou hast prepared for me a feast;
and though I am unworthy to sit down as guest,
I wholly rest on the merits of Jesus,
and hide myself beneath his righteousness;
When I hear his tender invitation
and see his wondrous grace,
I cannot hesitate, but must come to thee in love.
By thy spirit enliven my faith rightly to discern
and spiritually to apprehend the Saviour.
While I gaze upon the emblems of my Saviour’s death,
may I ponder why he died, and hear him say,
‘I gave my life to purchase yours,
presented myself an offering to expiate your sin,
shed my blood to blot out your guilt,
opened my side to make you clean,
endured your curses to set you free,
bore your condemnation to satisfy divine justice.’
Oh may I rightly grasp the breadth and length of this design,
draw near, obey, extend the hand,
take the bread, receive the cup,
eat and drink, testify before all men
that I do for myself, gladly, in faith,
reverence and love, receive my Lord,
to be my life, strength, nourishment, joy, delight.
In the supper I remember his eternal love,
boundless grace, infinite compassion,
agony, cross, redemption,
and receive assurance of pardon, adoption, life, glory.
As the outward elements nourish my body,
so may thy indwelling Spirit invigorate my soul,
until that day when I hunger and thirst no more,
and sit with Jesus at his heavenly feast.

Chariot without Wheels

I have long used the prayers from the book, Valley of Vision to a aid me in my own prayer and devotional life. This prayer hit me like I had never read it before - but I know I have. Pray if with me and for me.

O Lord of grace, 
I have been hasty and short in private prayer, 
    O quicken my conscience to feel this folly, 
    to bewail this ingratitude; 
My first sin of the day leads into others, 
    and it is just that thou shouldst withdraw 
    thy presence 
    from one who waited carelessly on thee. 
Keep me at all times from robbing thee, 
    and from depriving my soul of thy due worship; 
Let me never forget 
    that I have an eternal duty to love, honour 
    and obey thee, 
    that thou art infinitely worthy of such; 
    that if I fail to glorify thee 
I am guilty of infinite evil that merits infinite punishment, 
    for sin is the violation of an infinite obligation. 
O forgive me if I have dishonoured thee, 
Melt my heart, heal my backslidings, 
    and open an intercourse of love. 
When the fire of thy compassion warms my 
    inward man, 
and the outpourings of thy Spirit fill my soul, 
    then I feelingly wonder at my own depravity, 
    and deeply abhor myself; 
    then thy grace is a powerful incentive 
    to repentance, 
    and an irresistible motive to inward holiness. 
May I never forget that thou hast my heart 
    in thy hands. 
Apply to it the merits of Christ's atoning blood 
    whenever I sin. 
Let thy mercies draw me to thyself. 
Wean me from all evil, mortify me to the world, 
    and make me ready for my departure hence 
    animated by the humiliations of penitential love. 
My soul is often a chariot without wheels, 
    clogged and hindered in sin's miry clay; 
Mount it on eagle's wings 
    and cause it to soar upward to thyself.

Valley of Vision Prayer for this Week

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Father of Mercies, Hear me for Jesus' sake. I am sinful even in my closest walk with thee; it is of thy mercy I died not long ago; Thy grace has given me in the cross by which thou hast reconciled thyself to me and me to thee, drawing me by thy great love, reckoning me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself.

Giver of all graces, I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me, for it is hard to practise what I believe. Strengthen me against temptations. My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin, a river of corruption since childhood days, flowing on in every pattern of behaviour; Thou hast disarmed me of the means in which I trusted, and I have no strength but in thee.

Thou alone canst hold back my evil ways, but without thy grace to sustain me I fall. Satan's darts quickly inflame me, and the shield that should quench them easily drops from my hand: Empower me against his wiles and assaults. Keep me sensible of my weakness, and of my dependence upon thy strength. Let every trial teach me more of thy peace, more of thy love.

Thy Holy Spirit is given to increase thy graces, and I cannot preserve or improve them unless he works continually in me. May he confirm my trust in thy promised help, and let me walk humbly in dependence upon thee, for Jesus' sake.

Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritian Prayers