The prayer of the righteous person is powerfully effective. James 5:16
As election day is fast approaching I’ve looked to the prayers of the Puritans to help stir in me a greater sense of conviction for our nation and the church. These prayers have nothing to do with the culturally relevant verbage of our day. They may in fact, be difficult for many believers to swallow let alone pray. In revisiting these prayers, my own walk with God has once again been weighed in the balances, and found wanting. I simply have no words to express the wisdom, the accuracy and the fervency in which our spiritual forefathers prayed, but which I also believe was the spirit of the church so many centuries ago. Rather than go any further in trying to convey my thoughts, I will share with you a prayer I read this morning.
O my soul,
In prayer I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean of God’s infinite grace thou canst triumph over all the evils that are amassed upon these shores of mortality.
Time, with its vain amusements and cruel disappointments never appears so inconsiderate as when thou art upon that broad ocean of grace in prayer.
O Lord, In prayer I see myself as nothing. In prayer where wonderfully all things here below vanish and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what Thou art doing for thy church, and O how I long that Thou shouldest get Thyself a great name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted up above the frowns and flatteries of life and taste heavenly joys.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in Thy hands to be entirely at thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own. Thy will be done, O Thou all wise and glorious God, and to thee be the glory of all the outcome of Thy wise disposals of my life.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, thy kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as one loved to the beloved.
Let me be honest, I do not pray using “Thee, Thou, Thine or Thy”! My prayers are just the simple language of a woman indebted to mercy trying to please the Lord. Nonetheless, I find great conviction, guidance, and hope from such prayers, as I long for the church and myself to live in our nation for the praise of His glorious grace.
