When I was on the prayer leadership team for Campus Outreach during college, my co-prayer team leader, Alonzo Crawford, purchased the entire team the book The Valley of Vision.
And I am so thankful.
This book is a collection of Puritan prayers and devotionals with depth and unction and the Spirit. It helps me to pray, is teaching me to pray and makes me long to pray with as much heart and intensity as our Puritan brothers of old.
You should invest in this book.
Over the last few days I’ve been particularly fixed on the three main “morning” prayers and devotions and my heart echoes and says “amen” to every sentence of the following prayer. I hope you are encouraged and that your day starts off with the proper perspective.
Morning Dedication
Almighty God,
As I cross the threshold of this day
I commit myself, soul, body, affairs, friends, to Thy care.
Watch over, keep, guide, direct, sanctify, bless me.
Incline my heart to thy ways;
Mould me wholly into the image of Jesus, as a potter forms clay;
May my lips be a well-tuned harp to sound Thy praise;
Let those around see me living by Thy Spirit,
trampling the world underfoot,
unconformed to lying vanities,
transformed by a renewed mind,
clad in the entire armour of God,
shining as a never-dimmed light,
showing holiness in all my doings.
Let no evil this day soil my thoughts, words, hands.
May I travel miry paths with a life pure from spot or stain.
In needful transactions let my affection be in heaven,
and my love soar upwards in flames of fire,
my gaze fixed on unseen things,
my eyes open to the emptiness, fragility,
mockery of earth and its vanities.
May I view all things in the mirror of eternity,
waiting for the coming of my Lord,
listening for the last trumpet call,
hastening unto the new heaven and earth.
Order this day all my communications according to Thy wisdom,
and to the gain of mutual good.
Forbid that I should not be profited or made profitable.
May I speak each word as if my last word,
and walk each step as my final one.
If my life should end today,
let this be my best day.
Sophie Miller 