READING: Luke 11:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:17
I am still learning to pray, as I suspect you are, too. In fact, the more I learn to pray, the more I see how weakly I pray. Recently, I’ve begun using prayer books to guide some of my praying, and I’ve found them quite helpful. I never thought I would include these books as part of my quiet time, but they have challenged me to pray and focused my praying at the same time. Consider, for example, the portion of the prayer below from the famous Puritan work, The Valley of Vision.* Even in older English, it grabs my heart in prayer:
Three in one, one in three, God of my salvation,
Heavenly Father, blessed Son, eternal Spirit,
I adore thee as one Being, one Essence, One God in three distinct persons,
for bringing sinners to thy knowledge and to thy kingdom.
O Father, thou hast loved me and sent Jesus to redeem me;
O Jesus, though hast loved me and assumed my nature,
shed thine own blood to wash away my sins,
wrought righteousness to cover my unworthiness;
O Holy Spirit, though hast loved me and entered my heart,
implanted there eternal life,
revealed to me the glories of Jesus.
Three Persons and one God, I bless and praise thee,
for love so unmerited, so unspeakable, so wondrous,
so mighty to save the lost and raise them to glory.
I could not speak such words on my own doing, and I’m humbled even in reading the words aloud. Perhaps you might use this kind of resource to make disciples, too.
PRAYER: “Lord, please teach me to pray.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Isaiah 26-28, Philippians 2
*Arthur Bennett, ed., The Valley of Vision (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Trust Trust, 1975), 3.