Free Grace Church: Fresno, Ca
The Broken Heart- A Prayer
This prayer is from the book "Valley of Vision" that is a collection of puritan prayers. There is some great stuff in there, but the language is a little inaccessible to modern ears, especially if you are not a literature student. So, I took this one and adapted it to make it fit our language. Enjoy
The Broken Heart
From Valley of Vision, p. 150
Adapted by Matt Troupe
O Lord,
Not a day of my life has passed that has not proven me guilty in your sight.
I have offered prayers from a prayerless heart,
My praise has rarely sounded praise worthy,
My best efforts have been filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus,
Let me find a shelter in your reconciling wounds,
Though my sins rise up to heaven, your merits soar above them.
Though my unrighteousness weighs me down to hell, your righteousness exalts me to your throne.
Everything in me calls for my rejection, everything in you pleads for my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice, to the throne of boundless grace.
Lord, help me to hear your voice assuring me:
That by your stripes I am healed,
That you were bruised for my iniquities,
That you have been made sin for me,
That I might be righteousness in you,
That my darkest sins, my diverse sins, my many sins,
Are all forgiven, buried in an ocean of your concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned;
Lost but saved;
Wandering but found;
Sinning but cleansed;
Give me a perpetual broken heartedness; keep me always clinging to your cross.
Flood me every moment with a downpour of grace from above,
Open up to me the springs of divine knowledge, sparkling like crystal, flowing clear and pure through the wilderness of my life.