Devotionals: The Valley of Vision

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 […]

LORD OF IMMORTALITY, Before whom angels bow 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, […]

O GOD MOST HIGH, MOST GLORIOUS, The thought of thine infinite serenity       cheers me, For I am toiling and moiling, troubled     and distressed,   but thou art for ever at perfect peace. Thy designs cause thee no fear or care     of unfulfilment,   they stand fast as the eternal hills. Thy power knows no bond,   thy goodness […]

O LORD, The world is artful to entrap,       approaches in fascinating guise,       extends many a gilded bait,       presents many a charming face. Let my faith scan every painted bauble,   and escape every bewitching snare   in a victory that overcomes all things. In my duties give me firmness, energy, zeal,     devotion to thy cause,     courage in […]

O SPIRIT OF GOD, Help my infirmities;       When I am pressed down with a load     of sorrow,   perplexed and knowing not what to do,   slandered and persecuted,   made to feel the weight of the cross,     help me, I pray thee. If thou seest in me   any wrong thing encouraged,   any evil desire cherished,   any delight […]

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 […]

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. […]

ETERNAL FATHER, It is amazing love,     that thou hast sent thy Son       to suffer in my stead,     that thou hast added the Spirit       to teach, comfort, guide,     that thou hast allowed the ministry of angels       to wall me round; All heaven subserves the welfare of a poor worm. Permit thy unseen servants to be ever […]

THOU GREAT I AM, Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at       the thought of a Being   with whom one day is as a thousand years,   and a thousand years as one day, A mighty God, who, amidst the lapse of worlds,   and the revolutions of empires,   feels no variableness,   but is glorious in immortality. […]

MY GOD, I feel it is heaven to please thee,     and to be what thou wouldst have me be. O that I were holy as thou art holy,   pure as Christ is pure,   perfect as thy Spirit is perfect! These, I feel, are the best commands in thy Book,   and shall I break them? must […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

SOVEREIGN LORD, When clouds of darkness, atheism, and         unbelief come to me, I see thy purpose of love   in withdrawing the Spirit that I might prize     him more,   in chastening me for my confidence in     past successes, that my wound of secret       godlessness might be cured. Help me to humble myself before thee   by seeing […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

LORD JESUS, I sin — Grant that I may     never cease grieving because of it,     never be content with myself,     never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue,   trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure,   peaceable,     to live for thee and not for […]

O LORD, Help me to approach thee         with becoming conception of thy nature,   relations and designs. Thou inhabitest eternity, and   my life is nothing before thee; Thou dwellest in the highest heaven and   this cannot contain thee;     I live in a house of clay. Thy power is almighty;     I am crushed before the moth. Thy […]

O THOU THAT HEAREST PRAYER, Teach me to pray.         I confess that in religious exercises   the language of my lips and the feelings     of my heart have not always agreed,   that I have frequently taken carelessly upon     my tongue a name never pronounced above       without reverence and humility,   that I have often desired things which […]

O LORD, Whose power is infinite and wisdom infallible,       Order things that they may neither hinder,     nor discourage me,     nor prove obstacles to the progress of thy cause; Stand between me and all strife, that no evil befall,     no sin corrupt my gifts, zeal, attainments; May I follow duty and not any foolish device     of […]

GOD OF MY END, It is my greatest, noblest pleasure     to be acquainted with thee     and with my rational, immortal soul; It is sweet and entertaining   to look into my being   when all my powers and passions   are united and engaged in pursuit of thee,   when my soul longs and passionately breathes   after conformity to […]