A Sunday Prayer: Purification (Valley of Vision)

Tomorrow my sermon will expound 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, a passage that calls believers to glorify God with their bodies. With that in mind, I could think of no better prayer to meditate on than the one recorded in Arthur Bennett's Valley of Vision.  May God be pleased to purify his bride as we meditate on Paul's inspired words to flee sexual immorality and pursue God's glory with our bodies.

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 likness, 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 amid burning heat, so be it,

but do thou sit at the furnace mouth to watch the ore that nothing be lost.

If I sin willfully, grievously, tormentedly, in grace

take away my mourning and give me music; remove my sackcloth and clothe me with beauty; still my sighs and fill my mouth with song, then give me summer weather as a Christian.

Amen. May this washed, sanctified, and justified sinner proclaim a message of God's gospel that purifies all who hear it. Soli Deo Gloria, dss