Fueling Your Passion to Treasure Christ by Providing Grace-saturated Audio Sermons
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2 ESV)
Fueling Your Passion to Treasure Christ by Providing Grace-saturated Audio Sermons
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2 ESV)
Fueling Your Passion to Treasure Christ by Providing Grace-saturated Audio Sermons
“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2 ESV)
Heavenly Father,
Save me entirely from my sin.
I know I am righteous through the righteousness of another,
but I pant and pine for likeness to Yourself;
I am Your child and should bear Your image,
Enable me to recognize my death unto sin;
When it tempts me may I be deaf unto its voice.
Deliver me from the invasion as well as the dominion of sin.
Grant me to walk as Christ walked,
to live in the newness of His life,
the life of love, the life of faith,
the life of holiness.
I abhor my body of death,
its indolence, envy, meanness, pride.
Forgive, and kill these vices,
have mercy on my unbelief,
on my corrupt and wandering heart.
When Your blessings come I begin to idolize them,
and set my affection on some beloved object—
children, friends, wealth, honor;
Cleanse this spiritual adultery and give me chastity;
close my heart to all but You.
Sin is my greatest curse;
Let Your victory be apparent to my consciousness,
and displayed in my life.
Help me to be always devoted, confident, obedient,
resigned, childlike in my trust of You,
to love You with soul, body, mind, strength,
to love my fellow-man as I love myself,
to be saved from unregenerate temper, hard thoughts,
slanderous words, meanness, unkind manners,
to master my tongue and keep the door of my lips.
Fill me with grace daily,
that my life be a fountain of sweet water.
Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), p. 92.
O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
We hope in Your Word,
there we see You, not on a fearful throne of judgment
But on a throne of grace
waiting to be gracious, and exalted in mercy.
There we hear You saying, not ‘Depart you cursed,’ but
‘Look to me and be saved,
for I am God and there is none else.’
They that know Your name put their trust in You.
How many now glorified in heaven, and what numbers living on
earth,
are Your witnesses, O God,
exemplifying in their recovery from the ruins of the fall
the freeness, riches and efficacy of Your grace!
All that were ever saved were saved by You,
and will through eternity exclaim, ‘Not unto us, but
to Your name give glory for Your mercy and truth’s sake.’
You have chosen to transact all Your concerns with us
through a mediator in whom all fullness dwells
and who is exalted to be prince and savior.
To him we look, on him we depend, through him we are
justified.
May we derive relief from his sufferings
without ceasing to abhor sin,
or to long after holiness;
feel the double efficacy of his blood,
tranquillizing and cleansing our consciences;
delight in his service as well as in his sacrifice;
be constrained by his love
to live not to ourselves but to him;
cherish a grateful and cheerful disposition,
not murmuring and repining if our wishes are not indulged,
or because some trials are blended with our enjoyments,
But, sensible of our desert,
and impressed with the number and greatness of Your
benefits,
may we bless and praise You at all times.
Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), p. 220.
Your will is supreme in heaven and earth,
and all beings are creatures of Your power.
You are the Father of our spirits;
Your inspiration gives us understanding,
Your providence governs our lives.
But, O God, we are sinners in Your sight;
You have judged us so,
and if we deny it we make You a liar.
Yet in Christ You are reconciled to Your rebellious subjects;
give us the ear of faith to hear Him,
the eye of faith to see Him,
the hand of faith to receive Him,
the appetite of faith to feed upon Him;
that we might find in Him light,
riches, honor, eternal life.
You are the inviting one, may we hearken to You;
the almighty instructor, teach us to live to You;
the light-dweller, inaccessible to man and angels,
hiding Yourself behind the elements of creation,
but known to us in Jesus,
Fill our minds with the grandeur of Your perfections.
Your love to us in Jesus is firm and changeless,
nothing can separate us from it,
and in the enjoyment of it nothing can make us miserable.
Preserve us from hypocrisy and formality in religion;
Enable us to remember what You are and what we are,
to recall Your holiness and our unworthiness;
Help us to approach You clothed with humility,
for vanity, forwardness, insensibility,
disorderly affection, backwardness to duty,
proneness to evil are in our hearts.
Let us never forget Your patience, wisdom, power, faithfulness, care,
and never cease to respond to Your invitations.
Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), p. 222.
I am a shell 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 You from eternity,
given to Christ, and born again;
I am deeply convinced of the evil and misery of a sinful state,
of the vanity of creatures,
but also of the sufficiency of Christ.
When You would guide me I control myself,
When You would be sovereign I rule myself.
When You would take care of me I suffice myself.
When I should depend on Your providence I supply myself,
When I should submit to Your providence I follow my will,
When I should study, love, honor, trust You, I serve myself;
I fault and correct Your laws to suit myself,
Instead of You I look to man’s approbation,
and am by nature an idolater.
Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to You.
Convince me that I cannot be my own god, or make myself happy,
nor my own Christ to restore my joy,
nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me.
Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction,
for when my goal is god You do cast me lower,
when riches are my idol You do wing them away,
when pleasure is my all You do turn it into bitterness.
Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart;
Show me that none of these things
can heal a wounded conscience,
or support a tottering frame,
or uphold a departing spirit.
Then take me to the cross and leave me there.
Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), p. 91.
Treasuring Christ