At least a decade ago, I was listening to John MacArthur's radio program Grace To You. At the end of the program MacArthur offered, free, a copy of a book called Valley Of Vision, a compendium of prayers by Puritans and the Puritan minded from the 1600s up to Charles Haddon Spurgeon's death in 1892. I didn't send for the book but had second thoughts later and ordered it from a bookstore.
In 2002 the pastor of the church we attended, and his wife, came over to our house for dinner. This is the man who I have mentioned before as being one of the finest preachers of our Savior Jesus Christ that I have ever heard. He brought a present with him, a leather bound copy of this book. It's the book that we have used as a pre-dinner prayer in our home since then. There is a reason for this. In the preface Arthur Bennett, the editor, wrote that in the prayers...New England Presbyterians and Congregationalists were at one with English Dissenters and Anglican evangelicals in a close-knit union that transcended differences in worship, discipline and polity, and that they spoke the same spiritual language, shared the same code of values, adopted the same attitude towards the Christian religion, and breathed out the same God-centered aspirations in a manner that makes it impossible to distinguish the voice of the conformist from that of the non-conformist.
This book has become a trusted friend who reminds me every day, who I am, what I have been saved from and whose strength keeps me. These prayers, and prayers of this nature should also transcend the doctrinal and the political differences of Christians in America today. Every dinner time, I read the prayer that the book opens to. The following is tonight's prayer, very typical of the book and of those from a stronger church period:
Man A Nothing
I am a shell full of dust,
but animated with an invisible rational soul
and made anew by an unseen power of grace;
Yet I am no rare object of valuable price,
but one that has nothing and is nothing,
although chosen of thee from eternity,
given to Christ, and born again;
I am deeply convinced
of the evil and misery of a sinful state,
of the vanity of creatures,
but also of the sufficiency of Christ.
When thou wouldst guide me I control myself'
When thou wouldst be sovereign I rule myself.
When thou wouldst take care of me I suffice myself.
When I should depend on thy providings I supply myself,
When I should submit to thy providence I follow my will,
When I should study, love, honor, trust thee, I serve myself;
I fault and correct thy laws to suit myself,
Instead of thee I look to man's approbation, and am by nature an idolater.
Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee.
Convince me that I cannot be my own God, or make myself happy,
nor my own Christ to restore my joy,
nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me.
Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction,
for when my credit is good thou dost cast me lower,
when riches are my idol thou dost wing them away,
when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness.
Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart;
show me that none of these things
can heal a wounded conscience,
or support a tottering frame,
or uphold a departing spirit.
then take me to the cross
and leave me there.
In 2002 the pastor of the church we attended, and his wife, came over to our house for dinner. This is the man who I have mentioned before as being one of the finest preachers of our Savior Jesus Christ that I have ever heard. He brought a present with him, a leather bound copy of this book. It's the book that we have used as a pre-dinner prayer in our home since then. There is a reason for this. In the preface Arthur Bennett, the editor, wrote that in the prayers...New England Presbyterians and Congregationalists were at one with English Dissenters and Anglican evangelicals in a close-knit union that transcended differences in worship, discipline and polity, and that they spoke the same spiritual language, shared the same code of values, adopted the same attitude towards the Christian religion, and breathed out the same God-centered aspirations in a manner that makes it impossible to distinguish the voice of the conformist from that of the non-conformist.
This book has become a trusted friend who reminds me every day, who I am, what I have been saved from and whose strength keeps me. These prayers, and prayers of this nature should also transcend the doctrinal and the political differences of Christians in America today. Every dinner time, I read the prayer that the book opens to. The following is tonight's prayer, very typical of the book and of those from a stronger church period:
Man A Nothing
I am a shell full of dust,
but animated with an invisible rational soul
and made anew by an unseen power of grace;
Yet I am no rare object of valuable price,
but one that has nothing and is nothing,
although chosen of thee from eternity,
given to Christ, and born again;
I am deeply convinced
of the evil and misery of a sinful state,
of the vanity of creatures,
but also of the sufficiency of Christ.
When thou wouldst guide me I control myself'
When thou wouldst be sovereign I rule myself.
When thou wouldst take care of me I suffice myself.
When I should depend on thy providings I supply myself,
When I should submit to thy providence I follow my will,
When I should study, love, honor, trust thee, I serve myself;
I fault and correct thy laws to suit myself,
Instead of thee I look to man's approbation, and am by nature an idolater.
Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee.
Convince me that I cannot be my own God, or make myself happy,
nor my own Christ to restore my joy,
nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me.
Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction,
for when my credit is good thou dost cast me lower,
when riches are my idol thou dost wing them away,
when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness.
Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart;
show me that none of these things
can heal a wounded conscience,
or support a tottering frame,
or uphold a departing spirit.
then take me to the cross
and leave me there.
