A Puritan Prayer
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 self,
to copy thy words, acts, spirit,
to be transformed into thy likeness,
to be consecrated wholly to thee,
to live entirely to thy glory.
Deliver me from attachment to things unclean,
from wrong associations,
from the predominance of evil passions,
from the sugar of sin as well as its gall,
that with self-loathing, deep contrition, earnest heart searching
I may come to thee, cast myself on thee, trust in thee, cry to thee, be delivered by thee.
O God, the Eternal All, help me to know that
all things are shadows, but thou art substance,
all things are quicksands, but thou art mountain,
all things are shifting, but thou art anchor,
all things are ignorance, but thou art wisdom.
If my life is to be a crucible among burning heat, so be it,
but do thou sit at the furnace mouth to watch the ore that nothing be lost.
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 self,
to copy thy words, acts, spirit,
to be transformed into thy likeness,
to be consecrated wholly to thee,
to live entirely to thy glory.
Deliver me from attachment to things unclean,
from wrong associations,
from the predominance of evil passions,
from the sugar of sin as well as its gall,
that with self-loathing, deep contrition, earnest heart searching
I may come to thee, cast myself on thee, trust in thee, cry to thee, be delivered by thee.
O God, the Eternal All, help me to know that
all things are shadows, but thou art substance,
all things are quicksands, but thou art mountain,
all things are shifting, but thou art anchor,
all things are ignorance, but thou art wisdom.
If my life is to be a crucible among burning heat, so be it,
but do thou sit at the furnace mouth to watch the ore that nothing be lost.
posted by Bob | 9:58 AM
2 Comments:
I like this prayer except for the expression 'self-loathing.' Love the sinner, hate the sin, right? Recognizing that my sinfulness is to be mourned and repented of, if I am loved and accepted by Christ, I should love, not loathe, myself also.
Yeah, especially in light of Todd's wisdom that you can only give what you already have. Mean people, I've heard, are meanest to themselves.
I've noticed that Puritan poetry often has aggressive wording, "Kill my envy, command my tongue, trample down self," and from John Donne's (not exactly Puritan, but close)"Holy Sonnet 14": "Batter my heart, three-personed God"..."Take me to You, imprison me, for I, / Except You entrall me, never shall be free, / Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me."
Now Coram Deo pays a lot of heed to the thoughts of this era, yet also to Don Miller, who wrote "the whole lot of us fell into this militant Christianity that says you should live like a Navy SEAL for Jesus. I am absolutely ashamed to admit this now." He also wrote against the war metaphors we use in faith. I suppose there is a balance between thinking as a new man while living in the old body. Maybe someone would like to explore that.
Evan
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