A Prayer For Today

"All things in me call for my rejection, all things in Thee plead my acceptance."

Last week our worship pastor prayed part of a Puritan prayer that was so beautiful. I have thought of one line from this prayer all week, and it has touched my soul. Yesterday at church we sang a new song called I Cling and this particular line of the prayer was part of it. Again, it stood out to me. This morning as I was thinking about it, I looked up that one line of the Puritan prayer that had been repeating itself in my mind all week and found the prayer in its entirety. It is simply beautiful and speaks exactly what I am thinking about today... hundreds of years later. As I was looking for this, I came across several websites that list many of the Puritan prayers... I think that God has opened my eyes to new things to meditate on today. I have loved all that I have read so far. Here is the prayer that contains the line that has been resonating with me during the last week. I hope it speaks to you too.

Puritan Prayer: The Broken Heart

O LORD,

No day of my life has passed that has not proved me guilty in Thy sight.

Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;

praise has been often praiseless sound; my best services are filthy rags.

Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in Thy appeasing wounds.

Though my sins rise to heaven, Thy merits soar above them;

though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,

Thy righteousness exalts me to Thy throne.

All things in me call for my rejection, all things in Thee plead my acceptance.

I appeal from the throne of perfect justice to Thy throne of boundless grace.

Grant me to hear Thy voice assuring me:

that by Thy stripes I am healed, that Thou wast bruised for my iniquities,

that Thou hast been made sin for me that I might be righteous in Thee,

that my grievous sins, my manifold sins, are all forgiven,

buried in the ocean of Thy concealing blood.

I am guilty, but pardoned, lost, but saved,

wandering, but found, sinning, but cleansed.

Give me perpetual broken-heartedness, keep me always clinging to Thy cross,

flood me every moment with descending grace,

open to me the springs of divine knowledge, sparkling like crystal,

flowing clear and unsullied through my wilderness of life.