Devotionals: The Valley of Vision

LORD JESUS, I am blind, be thou my light, ignorant, be thou my wisdom, self-willed, be thou my mind. Open my ear to grasp quickly thy Spirit’s voice, and delightfully run after his beckoning hand; Melt my conscience that no hardness remain, make it alive to evil’s slightest touch; When Satan approaches may I flee […]

SOVEREIGN COMMANDER OF THE UNIVERSE, I am sadly harassed by doubts, fears, unbelief, in a felt spiritual darkness. My heart is full of evil surmisings and disquietude, and I cannot act faith at all. My heavenly Pilot has disappeared, and I have lost my hold on the Rock of Ages; I sink in deep mire […]

O LORD GOD, Thou art my protecting arm, fortress, refuge, shield, buckler. Fight for me and my foes must flee; Uphold me and I cannot fall; Strengthen me and I stand unmoved, unmoveable; Equip me and I shall receive no wound; Stand by me and Satan will depart; Anoint my lips with a song of […]

O LORD, Thou knowest my great unfitness for service, my present deadness, my inability to do anything for thy glory, my distressing coldness of heart. I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable, and loathe and abhor myself. I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest have me do, for I feel amazingly deserted by thee, […]

MY FATHER, When thou art angry towards me for my wrongs I try to pacify thee by abstaining from future sin; But teach me that I cannot satisfy thy law, that this effort is a resting in my righteousness, that only Christ’s righteousness, ready made, already finished, is fit for that purpose; that thy chastising […]

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 […]

O LORD, I marvel that thou shouldst become incarnate, be crucified, dead, and buried. The sepulchre calls forth my adoring wonder, for it is empty and thou art risen; the four-fold gospel attests it, the living witnesses prove it, my heart’s experience knows it. Give me to die with thee that I may rise to […]

GOD OF THE PUBLICAN, Be merciful to me a sinner; this I am by nature and practice, this thy Word proclaims me to be, this I hope I feel myself to be; Yet thou hast not left me to despair, for there is no ‘peradventure’ in thy grace; I have all the assurance I need […]

HEAVENLY FATHER, SAVE ME ENTIRELY FROM SIN. I know I am righteous through the righteousness of another, but I pant and pine for likeness to thyself; I am thy child and should bear thy image; Enable me to recognize my death unto sin; When it tempts me may I be deaf unto its voice. Deliver […]

O LORD, 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 […]

O LORD OF GRACE, I have been hasty and short in private prayer, O quicken my conscience to feel this folly, to bewail this ingratitude; My first sin of the day leads into others, and it is just that thou shouldst withdraw thy presence from one who waited carelessly on thee. Keep me at all […]

HOLY LORD, How little repentance there is in the world, and how many sins I have to repent of! I am troubled for my sin of passion, for the shame and horror of it as an evil; I purpose to give way to it no more, and come to thee for strength to that end. […]

O THOU TERRIBLE MEEK, Let not pride swell my heart. My nature is the mire beneath my feet, the dust to which I shall return. In body I surpass not the meanest reptile; Whatever difference of form and intellect is mine is a free grant of thy goodness; Every faculty of mind and body is […]

MERCIFUL LORD, Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year, all the sins of my life, sins of early, middle, and advanced years, of omission and commission, of morose, peevish and angry tempers, of lip, life and walk, of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption, pride, of unfaithfulness to the souls of men, of want of bold […]

O LORD, When the world’s unbelievers reject thee, and are so forsaken by thee that thou callest them no more, it is to thine own thou dost turn, for in such seasons of general apostasy they in some measure backslide with the world. O how free is thy grace that reminds them of the danger […]