Prayer

This prayer is adapted slightly from "A minister's Bible", a prayer from Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers edited by Arthur G Bennett.

I prayed this prayer this morning before I got out of bed. Today is the day I go to my BSF class and when I complete my preparation for the Bible Study section of our Women's Gathering tomorrow. So it was especially good to pray about the many blessings of studying the Word of God.


O GOD OF TRUTH,
I thank you for the Holy Scriptures,
their precepts, promises, directions, light.
In them may I learn more of Christ,
be enabled to retain his truth
and have grace to follow it.
Help me to lift up the gates of my soul that he may come in
and show me himself when I search the Scriptures,
for I have no lines to fathom its depths,
no wings to soar to its heights.
By his aid may I be enabled to explore all its truths,
love them with all my heart,
embrace them with all my power,
engraft them into my life.
Bless to my soul all grains of truth garnered from your Word;
may they take deep root,
be refreshed by heavenly dew,
be ripened by heavenly rays,
be harvested to my joy and your praise.
Help me to gain profit by what I read,
as treasure beyond all treasure,
a fountain which can replenish my dry heart,
its waters flowing through me as a perennial river
on-drawn by your Holy Spirit.
Enable me to distil from its pages faithful prayer
that grasps the arm of your omnipotence,
achieves wonders, obtains blessings,
and draws down streams of mercy.
From it show me how my words have often been unfaithful to you,
injurious to my fellow-men,
empty of grace, full of folly,
dishonouring of my calling.
Then write your own words upon my heart and inscribe them on my lips;
So shall all glory be to you in my reading of your Word!

I would like to publicly express my thanks to Amy, who gave me the Am*zon gift voucher that I used to pay for this book and its postage across the Pacific to Perth.

[Image from Amazon.]