Valley of Vision Prayers

This morning in my devotions, this is the prayer I read from the book The Valley of Vision.  I especially liked the last sentence and asked God to help me accept that.

Heart Corruptions

O God, may Thy Spirit speak in me that I may speak to thee. I have no merit, let the merit of Jesus stand for me. I am undeserving, but I look to Thy tender mercy. I am full of infirmities, wants, sin; Thou art full of grace.

I confess my sin, my frequent sin, my wilful sin; all my powers of body and soul are defiled: a fountain of pollution is deep within my nature. There are chambers of foul images within my being; I have gone from one odious room to another, walked in a no-man’s-land of dangerous imaginations, pried into the secrets of my fallen nature.

I am utterly ashamed that I am what I am in myself; I have no green shoot in me nor fruit, but thorns and thistles; I am a fading leaf that the wind drives away; I live bare and barren as a winter tree, unprofitable, fit to be hewn down and burnt. Lord, dost Thou have mercy on me?

Thou hast struck a heavy blow at my pride, at the false god of self, and I lie in pieces before Thee. But Thou hast given me another master and lord, Thy Son, Jesus, and now my heart is turned towards holiness, my life speeds as an arrow from a bow towards complete obedience to Thee. Help me in all my doings to put down sin and to humble pride. Save me from the love of the world and the pride of life, from everything that is natural to fallen man, and let Christ’s nature be seen in me day by day. Grant me grace to bear Thy will without repining, and delight to be not only chiselled, squared, or fashioned, but separated from the old rock where I have been embedded so long, and lifted from the quarry to the upper air, where I may be built in Christ for ever.

Valley of Vision Prayers

Union With Christ

O Father,

Thou has made man for the glory of thyself,

and when not an instrument of that glory,

he is a thing of nought;

No sin is greater than the sin of unbelief,

for if union with Christ is the greatest good,

unbelief is the greatest sin,

as being cross to they command;

I see that whatever my sin is,

yet no sin is like disunion from Christ by unbelief.

Lord, keep me from committing the greatest sin in departing from him,

for I can never in this life perfectly obey and cleave to Christ.

When thou takest away my outward blessings, it is for sin,

in not acknowledging that all that I have is of thee,

in not serving thee through what I have,

in making myself secure and hardened.

Lawful blessings are the secret idols, and do most hurt;

the greatest injury is in the having,

the greatest good in the taking away.

In love divest me of blessings that I may glorify thee the more;

remove the fuel of my sin,

and may I prize the gain of a little holiness

as overbalancing all my losses.

The more I love thee with a truly graciouslove

the more I desire to love thee,

and the more miserable I am at my want of love;

The more I hunger and thirst after tee,

the more I faint and fail in finding thee,

The more my heart is broken for sin,

the more I pray it may be far more broken.

My great evil is that I do not remember the sins of my youth,

nay, the sins of one day I forget he next.

Keep me from all things that turn to unbelief

or lack of felt union with Christ.

Valley of Vision Prayers

Reproofs

O Merciful God,

When I hear of disagreeable things amongst Christians,

  it brings an additional weight and burden on my spirit;

I come to thee in my distress and make lamentable complaint;

Teach me how to take reproofs from friends,

  even thought I think I do not deserve them;

Use them to make me tenderly afraid of sin,

  more jealous over myself,

  more concerned to keep heart and life unblameable;

Cause them to help me to reflect on my want of spirituality,

  to abhor myself,

  to look upon myself as unworthy,

  and make them beneficial to my soul.

May all thy people know how little, mean, and vile I am,

  that they may see I am nothing,

  less than nothing,

  to be accounted nothing,

  that so they may pray for me aright,

  and have not the least dependence upon me.

It is sweet to be nothing and have nothing,

  and to be fed with crumbs from thy hands.

Blessed be thy Name for anything that life brings.

  How do poor souls live who have not thee,

    or when helpless have no God to go to,

    who feel not the constraining force of thy love,

    and the sweetness of communion?

O how admirably dost thou captivate the soul,

  making all desires and affections centre on thee!

Give me such vivacity in religion,

  that I may be able to take all reproofs from other men

    as from thy hands,

    and glorify thee for them

    from a sense of thy beneficent love

    and of my need to have my pride destroyed.

Valley of Vision Prayers

New Beginnings

Incomprehensible, Great and Glorious God,

I adore thee and abase myself.

I approach thee mindful that I am less than nothing,

a creature worse than nothing.

My thoughts are not screened from thy gaze.

My secret sins blaze in the light of thy countenance.

Enable me to remember that blood which cleanseth all sin,

to believe in that grace which subdues all iniquities,

to resign myself to that agency which can deliver me

from the bondage of corruption

into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

Thou has begun a good work in me

and canst alone continue and complete it.

Give me an increasing conviction of my tendency to err,

and of my exposure to sin.

Help me to feel more of the purifying, softening influence of religion,

its compassion, love, pity, courtesy,

and empl0y me as thy instrument in blessing others.

Give me to distinguish

between the mere form of godliness and its power,

between life and a name to live,

between guile and truth,

between hypocrisy and a religion that will bear thy eye.

If I am not right, set me right, keep me right;

And may I at last come to thy house in peace.

From The Valley of Vision, Banner of Truth Trust, pg 95

Valley of Vision Prayers

The Broken Heart

O Lord,

No day of my life has passed that has not proved me guilty in thy sight.

Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;

Praise has been often praiseless sound;

My best services are filthy rags.

Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in thy appeasing wounds.

Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar above them.

Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar above them.

Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,

Thy righteousness exalts me to they throne.

All things in me call for my rejection,

All things in thee plead my acceptance.

I appeal from the throne of perfect justice

To thy throne of boundless grace.

Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me:

That by thy stripes I am healed,

That thou wast bruised for my iniquities,

That thou hast been made sin for me

That I might be righteous in thee,

That my grievous sins, my manifold sins, are all forgiven,

Buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.

I am guilty, by pardoned,

Lost, but saved,

Wandering, but found.

Sinning, but cleansed.

Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,

Keep me always clinging to thy cross,

Flood me every moment with descending grace,

Open to me the springs of divine knowledge,

Sparkling like crystal,

Flowing clear and unsullied

Through my wilderness of life.

Valley of Vision Prayers

Choices

O God,

Though I am allowed to approach thee

I am not unmindful of my sins,

I do not deny my guilt,

I confess my wickedness, and earnestly plead forgiveness.

May I with Moses choose affliction

Rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin.

Help me to place myself always under thy guiding and guardian care,

To take firmer hold of the sure covenant that binds me to thee,

To feel fore of the purifying, dignifying,

Softening influence of the religion I profess,

To have more compassion, love, pity, courtesy,

To deem it an honour to be employed by thee

As an instrument in thy hands,

Ready to seize every opportunity of usefulness,

And willing to offer all my talents to they service.

Thou hast done for me all things well,

Hast remembered, distinguished, indulged me.

All my desires have not been gratified,

But thy love denied them to me

When fulfillment of my wishes would have proved my ruin or injury.

My trials have been fewer than my sins,

And when I have kissed the rod it has fallen from thy hands.

Thou hast often wiped away my tears,

Restored peace to my mourning heart,

Chastened me for my profit.

All thy work for me is perfect,

And I praise thee.

Valley of Vision Prayers

Man’s Great End

Lord of all being,

There is one thing that deserves my greatest care,

    That calls forth my ardent desires,

That is, that I may answer the great end for which I am made –

    To glorify thee who has given me being,

    And to do all the good I can for my fellow men;

Verily, life is not worth having

    If it be not improved for this noble purpose.

Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind!

Most men seem to live for themselves,

    Without much or any regard for they glory,

    Or for the good of others;

They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue

    The riches, honours, pleasures of this life,

    As if they supposed that wealth, greatness, merriment,

    Could make their immortal souls happy;

But, alas, what false delusive dreams are these!

And how miserable ere long will those be that sleep in them,

    For all our happiness consists in loving thee,

    And being holy as thou art holy.

O may I never fall into the tempers and vanities,

    The sensuality and folly of the present world!

It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast empty nothingness;

Time is a moment, a vapour,

    And all its enjoyments are empty bubbles,

    Fleeting blasts of wind,

    From which nothing satisfactory can be derived;

Give me grace always to keep in covenant with thee,

    And to reject as delusion a great name here or hereafter,

    Together with all sinful pleasures or profits.

Help me to know continually

    That there can be no true happiness,

    No fulfilling of thy purpose for me,

    Apart from a life lived in and for the Son of thy love.

Valley of Vision Prayers

SINCERITY

ELECTOR OF SAINTS,

Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and callest to thyself.

With thee is mercy, redemption, assurance, forgiveness;

Thou hast lifted me, a prisoner, out of the pit of sin

    and pronounced my discharge,

     not only in the courts of heaven,

     but in the dock of conscience;

hast justified me by faith,

    given me peace with thee,

    made me to enjoy glorious liberty as they child.

Save me from the false hope of the hypocrite:

May I never suppose I am in Christ unless I am a new creature,

never think I am born of the Spirit

    unless I mind the things of the Spirit,

never rest satisfied with professions of belief

    and outward forms of services,

     while my heart is not right with thee.

May I judge my sincerity in religion by my fear to offend thee,

        my concern to know thy will,

        my willingness to deny myself.

May nothing render me forgetful of thy glory,

or turn me aside from thy commands,

or shake my confidence in thy promises,

or offend thy children.

Let not my temporal occupations injure my spiritual concerns,

or the cares of life make me neglect the one thing needful.

May I not be inattentive to the design of thy dealings with me,

or insensible under thy rebukes,

or immobile at thy calls.

May I learn the holy art of abiding in thee,

        of being in the world and not of it,

        of making everything not only consistent with

         but conducive to my religion.