The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

I love this book. It prompts me to pray in ways that I otherwise would not know how to pray. It helps me to think of God as I ought, reminding me of truths about who he is. It challenges me in regard to my sin, and leads me to call upon God for greater faith and obedience. I not only enjoy reading the prayers aloud and making them my own, but also using them as starting points for my own prayers. On many occasions parts of the prayers have come to mind as I lay in bed or went about my work. I  have worked on committing some to memory. Today parts of the prayer "Openness" (those sections in bold) have reminded me to pray for a life that is focused on things that will matter eternally:

Lord of immortality

Before whom angels and archangels veil their faces,

enable me to serve thee with reverence and godly fear.

Thou who art Spirit and requirest truth in the inward parts,

help me to worship thee in spirit and in truth.

Thou who art righteous,

let me not harbour sin in my heart,

or indulge a worldly temper

or seek satisfaction in things that perish.

I hasten towards an hour

when all earthly pursuits and possessions will appear vain,

when it will be indifferent whether I have been rich or poor,

successful or disappointed,

admired or despised.

But it will be of eternal moment that I have mourned for sin,

hungered and thirsted after righteousness,

loved the Lord Jesus in sincerity,

gloried in his cross.

May these objects engross my chief solicitude!

Produce in me those principles and dispositions

that make thy service perfect freedom.

Expel from my mind all sinful fear and shame,

so that with firmness and courage I may

confess the redeemer before men,

go forth with him bearing his reproach,

be zealous with his knowledge,

be filled with his wisdom,

walk with his circumspection,

ask counsel of him in all things,

repair to the Scriptures for his orders,

stay my mind on his peace,

knowing that nothing can befall me

without his permission, appointment and administration.

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The example of Jesus in prayer

I recently enjoyed dropping over to Mountain Musings during one of my all-to-short times on the computer during a break at school. Tom posted a long quote from Charles Spurgeon on Jesus' example in prayer. As Spurgeon says, "If ever one of woman born might have lived without prayer, it was our spotless, perfect Lord, and yet none was ever so much in supplication as he!". Yet Christ made a habit of fellowshiping with his Father. This is a reminded of how much more I need to make prayer a priority, at war as I am with sin. I often fail to have the victory, while Christ was always victorious. I need his power desperately, yet I often fail to spend time asking for it. I hope this quote will remind me to renew my commitment to concentrated prayer.

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A guest post from my Mum

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. James 1:2-3.

In the last seven years I have seen these verses lived out so vividly in the life of my daughter Sherrin. Seven years ago I was earnestly seeking the Lord for the soul of my daughter, spending hours before him interceding for all of my four children. He had given them to me. He would answer my petitions. I asked the Lord to do whatever He needed to do to bring Sherrin into His kingdom. That same year in July Sherrin was seriously injured in a car accident and is still in pain from that. In the following years I saw the mighty hand of God moving and transforming His child into a new creation just as He promises He will do for every person who seeks His face with a humble and repentant heart. He showed Sherrin her heart and her need. He led her to the foot of the Cross and showed her a life beyond her pain. This life sustains her today. This life has led her into the treasures that God has for all men and she knows that this life, the Lord Jesus Christ, is sufficient in pain-filled days. Nothing else satisfies the soul. The Lord answered my prayers in an unexpected and awesome way and as I have watched Him at work in Sherrin my heart bursts with a mixture of sorrow and joy. Only the Lord can bring such joy out of sorrow.

by Lorraine Ward

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Kindly Thwarted

How kindly God has thwarted me,
so that I might learn to glory in disappointments.
Robert Murray McCheyne

Since reading Kimi's post Prayer, Healing, and Trust, I have been planning to write about my own experiences in this area. Firstly, I would like to share a few scriptures that have impressed my heart in recent weeks as I've thought about this topic of faith when God does not answer our prayers the way we would like.

O LORD God of hosts,
How long will you be angry
Against the prayer of your people?
You have fed them with the bread of tears,
And given them tears to drink in great measure.
Psalm 80:4-5.

Return, O LORD! How long?
And have compassion on your servants.
Oh, satisfy us early with your mercy,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days!
Make us glad according to the days in which you have afflicted us,
The years in which we have seen evil.
Let your work appear to your servants,
And you glory to their children.
And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us.
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:13-17.

"For my name's sake I will defer my anger,
And for My praise I will restrain it from you,
So that I do not cut you off.
Behold I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of afflication.
For my own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;
For how should My name be profaned?
And I will not give My glory to another.
Isaiah 48:9-11.

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Focusing on prayer

Recently, if was a blessing to receive a long comment on my blog from my friend Kerri who is a missionary in Bolivia. Kerri shared some of her experiences with prayer in response to my post Prayers, large and small. I thought other people would benefit from it, and I doubt you're into scouring my archives for new comments, so here it is!

I feel like I´m learning a heap about prayer at the moment - and that I have so much more to learn! A couple of thoughts to share that I have been thinking about or finding helpful:

Super-slow Bible reading. Saturating myself in the text, imagining the scene/concept, becoming the people in the text. Meditate on each word. For example I was doing this with psalm 103, and really visualing and putting myself in the pit described where my sin puts me . . and then imagining God reaching into the pit, drawing me out and ´crowning me with love and compassion . .´ feeling the sense of ´youth like an eagle´ that is described. It´s almost impossible not to spontaneously praise God and from this I find my prayer flows so much better

Kerri's experiences in this regard remind me of what was said about George Whitfield in Forgotten Founding Father.

Whitefield poured over the word of God, reflecting, using commentaries, and praying over every line and word, “making every statement a request and melting the passage into his soul.” He did this every morning, savouring and storing God’s word.

Due to this, later in life Whitefield could preach forty of fifty times a week without having time to prepare. He “could quote long passages of Scripture for his dramatic recitations.”

I often find that reading scripture leads me to pray about what I am reading. However, I am often reading fast. I have a Bible reading plan that goes through 4 chapters every day. However, I do find that I often want to go over the passage again. This can be a good time to put into action Kerri's "slow down and visualise" recommendation, and it has helped when I have tried it.

Kerri also shared about fasting, something I often think and read about but never do!

Fasting is something I´ve thought about a bit but not really done but my thoughts are – it´s not the act of fasting that helps us, its partly that fasting is a sin-finder – irritability, resentment etc that arise that we put as due to hunger are already there but surface when they are not masked by us satisfying our physical longings. We can find and confess seedling or hidden sins like this. Maybe we can extend this – in general I am too easily satisfied by food or other pleasurable activities. Time taken purposefully sacrificing something I enjoy in order to set this time aside for God teaches me to have my longings fulfilled by God and Him alone. NB even married couple are instructed ´not to deprive each other (of sex) except by mutual agreement in order that they can devote themselves to prayer´. Are we so easily satisfied by worldly pleasure that we don´t long for God like we should?

¨You, O Lord, are the thing that I long for
And yet, I´m not sure that I can bear the emptiness that this longing will involve.
If I really long for you then there will be no room for the clutter of a lot of other longings.¨ - author unknown

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Prayers, large and small

One of my family members recently declared that he believes there is no place in the Christian life for praying for a car park. Prayers about health/sickness also came in for a slamming. After studying Paul's prayers recorded in the Bible, he noted that they are about eternal things and believers' growth in grace. While I share his concerns about believers not praying about the things the Bible shows are most imporant, I do not agree that prayers about relatively small things are illegitimate.

As Amy wrote after praying for her newborn to sleep:

"does God care about sleeping babies? Of course He does. We ought to bring all things to Him. When we bring the dailyness of our lives before Him, we acknowledge His sovereignty over all things. The danger, of course, is forgetting that His Kingdom is big. When we bring the small details of our lives to Him, we ought to remember, too, that His kingdom extends beyond our four walls to the four corners of the earth. It is not only about the moment, but also about His Church that began with Adam and Eve and extends to future generations. "

What an eloquent way to express this truth! I often pray as I go about my work. In one thought I'll ask that God will help J___ adjust to having twins, and in the next that Dad will be saved. I pray that God will help me make my bed, and that he will enable me to be more self-controlled and kind. Small and large next to one another.

While there is a danger in only praying about small things, there is also a danger in reserving prayer for the greatest things. In doing so, people may fail to seek God about their worries in relation to their children, money, and other life issues. They may seek their own solutions, thinking these things are too small to bring to God.

I also believe the Lord's Prayer and other parts of the Bible show that there is nothing wrong with praying for small things as well as large ones, the physical as well as the eternal. In the Lord's Prayer, we pray in one breath that God will give us our daily bread and in the next that he will forgive our sins.

Our greatest danger is not praying about small things, but failing to pray enough. I often fall into this. I want to grow in understanding the most imporant things to pray for, yes. Toward this end, I have learnt a prayer from Phillipians. Yet my greatest need is to learn to pray more, and bring everything before the Lord. To commit at least 30 minutes each day to concentrating on prayer. Offering up prayers in the midst of everything else is good, but it is not enough. I was better at devoting large amounts of time to prayer early in my Christian life. This is not how it should be. We should grow stronger in concentrating in prayer the longer we walk with Jesus.

Occasionally I come across a quote that inspires me again in regard to prayer. I am reminded that God is ready and waiting to answer, if we will but asked. I am reminded that prayer is one of our most effective and vital activities. This quote from Samuel Charwick, Puritan, has been a special encouragement:

"Satan dreads nothing but prayer. Activities are multiplied that prayer may be ousted, and organizations are increased that prayer may have no chance. The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”

Do you have anything to share about how you pray, what you mainly pray about, or means you use to have concentrated times of prayer?

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More prayers at school

This week I had parent-teacher interviews. They all went well, praise God. It was also great to pray with some of the parents at the end of our time together, asking for wisdom, praying God will bless their parenting, and praying for the child.

I also continue to enjoy praying with the children. Since several people mentioned enjoying the children's prayers I posted here, I have decided to post a few more.

"We are your princesses and you are the King. We are sheep and you are the Shepherd."

"Thank you that you are the Shepherd, we are the sheep. Sometimes we do bad things and sometimes we do good things."

"In Jesus' name we have power. We're your princesses and we're you're sheep. You are the Shepherd and you are the King, we want to do everything you want us to do."

"Lord, you have all the glory, we have none. You help us."

Many of these prayers seem to be inspired by Psalm 23, which the children have learnt and recited in assembly. Some of the children's prayers are disturbing as well as sweet. For example:

"Thank you Lord that you've got lots of magic. Satan tries to steal things off you, but you don't let him have it all. Lord you've got power, and we've got power. Satan can only see one person at once, but Lord we know you can see all of us from heaven."

I don't know where the magic bit came from! The same child recently prayed: "Thankyou Lord that we can go to heaven and become ghosts. Thank you that you are the only ghost that lives forever."

I broke my usual practice of not correcting what they say during prayers. As soon as we'd finished praying, I pointed out that we do not become ghosts when we die!

These recurring themes about heaven, hell, Satan, etc. can cause problems. This afternoon a mother came into my class room very disturbed, saying that her daughter had told her that Miss Ward said that if they were scared of Satan they should say "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" and a spirit-angel would appear to protect them. The child went on to say that Miss Ward said so and "Miss Ward is right." The mother saw this as some kind of incantation. I assured her that I had only told the children that they could pray to God and he would always protect them from Satan. God is more powerful than Satan and they do not need to be afraid. The dear mother did not seem quite convinced of my innocence, but we did have a good prayer together before she left. I suspect that some of her little girl's confusion may have come from other children, and perhaps even their prayers! I know I need help to explain things accurately to the children, however, so I told this Mum that I am happy to receive any advice she can give!!

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Praying for the Persecuted

Today I received this Open Doors email prayer alert. For many years God has impressed upon me the importance of remembering the persecuted. I don't always do this well, but God keeps reminding me! The abduction of Christian young women, which this email alert speaks of, is not an uncommon threat in some countries. Tonight one of my Bible readings was Psalm 31, and I prayed that verse 20 would be real for Dorothy and Pastor Reggie:

"You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence
From the secret plots of man"

Daughter of Indian pastor abducted

Dorothy, the 25-year-old daughter of Pastor Reggie Howell from Ferozepur, Punjab, was kidnapped at 7:30am on Wednesday 19 April. She had gone for a morning walk and did not return home. The abductors called Pastor Reggie at 11:30am to tell him she was with them. There has been no news since then.

An OD staff member spoke to Pastor Reggie on the phone and said he was weeping so much, he could hardly talk. The same staff member met Dorothy last year and said "she is really anointed and gifted by the Lord, and has been in ministry for several years, helping her dad."

Pastor Reggie is the pastor of the Good Shepherd Community Church. He and his team of pastors are reaching out to some 840 villages Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. The terrain in these areas is difficult and there are many spiritual strongholds. Pastor Reggie also runs the School of Evangelism to train more workers.

Please pray for Dorothy to be released unharmed and for the family to know the Lord's comfort at this time.

Thank you for your faithful support

John

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A mother's prayers

I remember my mother's prayers and they have followed me.

They have clung to me all my life.
Abraham Lincoln

Esther and Mum reading together

Esther and Mum picking tomatoes

Abraham Lincoln's comment about his mother's prayers is also true of my life. There have been many times where my mother's prayers have seemed to surround me, even when she is far away. Times when I have been involved in sin, and I remember how disappointed she would be. Times when I have been troubled, depressed, or lonely away from home. Times when good things happen, and I think they must be answers to my mother's prayers.

As Esther and Mum's other grandchildren grow, her prayers also surround them. I pray all her prayers will be answered, and she will be blessed to see them walk in the truth. Even when Mum is dead, I trust that God will remember and answer her prayers. They will still cling to us.

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Favourite Times

Prayer times are my favourite parts of the day at school. First thing in the morning, about 8:30am, there is a staff prayer time. It is an enourmous privilege to work at a school where God's character and word are trusted, where he is praised, and where the many difficulties encountered at school can be brought before him. Prayer times with the children are just as enjoyable. It is encouraging to see their enthusiasm for praying. When I ask who would like to pray, it is common for everyone to put up their hands. Here are some excerpts from the prayers which I have particularly enjoyed.

"Please forgive my sins, and B____'s sins, and J'____'s sins, and E____'s sins [all fellow class members] and even Miss War's sins."

Following a story about the garden of Eden, the fall and Satan's role in it, and the cross, the children seemed deeply impressed with the reality of Satan. A few days later, one prayed:

"Please Lord, take care of everyone, except please Lord don't take care of Satan, or of Satan's group."

Then another prayed:

"Don't take care of Satan's group, and don't let Satan be part of our group."

For about two weeks now, one of the children who is from a pentecostal background has been praying:

"Holy Spirit in my heart, Holy Spirit in my friend's hearts, Holy Spirit in my family's hearts, Holy Spirit all over me."

On Wednesday, she added to this "You give us power, power, power." She said this with great fervour, and rose out of her chair, adding "You can heal people".

I had to put my hand over my mouth to hide the fact that I was trying not to laugh! One of the other children did laugh, and the child who prayed felt hurt. I am so glad I managed to contain myself so that she did not notice me laughing!

To top it off, another child prayed right after her and said:

"Thank you Lord that you come down when we die, and take us up to play with you. You play with us. You love children, I know you love children."

Sometimes the children's prayers remind me that I need to teach more about who God is. I am also conscious of the need to find a way to teach the reality of the Trinity clearly - not to explain the mystery (who can!) but to help them understand that we serve one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I was reminded of this when I told the children Jesus is God, and one said "I thought there was Jesus, and then there was God." I said "No, Jesus is God" and she seemed to accept that.

It is a privilege to share the love of God with these children, and to hear their prayers. I am grateful to have work I believe is valuable. Reading is one of my passions. I see how much it can help people, and find it meaningful to pass on these skills. My work has reminded me of how hard it must have been to gain reading skills, even though I do not remember the process, and makes me all the more grateful for them. My job would feel significant even if it was just about passing on reading skills. It is even more meaningful because I am free to pass on a greater love, and to point the children to One who can fulfill greater needs. It is not only a privilege, it is a reponsibility that I do not take lightly.

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"The Deeps"

This prayer is from a book I want to get, The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan writings from the 16th and 17th centuries. Although “The Deeps” is a long prayer, it is well worth reading.

“The Deeps”

Lord Jesus,
Give me a deeper repentance,
A horror of sin,
A dread of its approach;
Help me chastely to flee it,
And jealously to resolve that my heart
Shall be Thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust,
That I may lose myself to find myself in Thee,
The ground of my rest,
The spring of my being.
Give me a deeper knowledge of Thyself
as Saviour, Master, Lord, and King.

Give me deeper power in private prayer,
More sweetness in Thy Word,
More steadfast grip on its truth.
Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action,
and let me not seek moral virtue apart from Thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord,
Heavenly Husbandman,
That my being may be a tilled field.
The roots of grace spreading far and wide,
Until Thou alone art seen in me,
Thy beauty golden like summer harvest,
Thy fruitfulness and autumn plenty.

I have no master but Thee,
No law but Thy will,
No delight but Thyself,
No wealth but that Thou givest,
No good but that Thou bestowest.

No peace but that Thou makest me,
I have nothing but that I receive from Thee,
I can be nothing but that grace adorns me.
Quarry me deep, dear Lord,
And then fill me to overflowing
With living water.

I took this photo during my trial as a teacher’s aid at a Christian school on the North West Coast in October. The farming country there reminds me of the work of our “Heavenly Husbandman”, who so ably works in us to create a “tilled field” of grace.

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