The Deeps

Here is a beautiful prayer, that truly echoes the cry of my heart. I pray that you may be blessed by it as much as I was.

LORD JESUS,

Give me a deeper repentance,

a horror of sin,

a dread of its approach;

Help me chastely to flee it,

and jealousy to resolve that my heart

shall be thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust,

that I may lose myself to find myself in thee,

the ground of my rest,

the spring of my being.

Give me a deeper knowledge of thyself

as Saviour, Master, Lord, and King.

Give me deeper power in private prayer,

more sweetness in thy Word,

more steadfast grip on its truth.

Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, 

and let me not seek moral virtue apart from three.

Plough deep in me, great Lord,

heavenly Husbandman,

that my being may be a tilled field,

the roots of grace spreading far and wide,

until thou alone art seen in me,

thy beauty golden like summer harvest, 

thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no Master but thee,

no law but thy will,

no delight but thyself,

no wealth but that thou givest,

no good but that thou blessest,

no peace but that thou bestowest.

I am nothing but that thou makest me,

I have nothing but that I receive from thee,

I can be nothing but that grace adorns me.

Quarry me deep, dear Lord,

and then fill me to overflowing 

with living water.

(A Puritan Prayer taken from The Valley of Vision)