I got this from Tim Challies today.

It’s a Puritan prayer from the Valley of Vision.

O God of grace,
I bewail my cold, listless, heartless prayers;
their poverty adds sin to my sin.
If my hope were in them I should be undone,
But the worth of Jesus perfumes my feeble breathings, and wins their acceptance.
Deepen my contrition of heart,
Confirm my faith in the blood that washes from all sin.
May I walk lovingly with my great Redeemer.
Flood my soul with true repentance that my heart may be broken for sin and unto sin.
Let me be as slow to forgive myself as thou art ready to forgive me.
Gazing on the glories of thy grace may I be cast into the lowest depths of shame.
And walk with downcast head now thou art pacified towards me.
O my great High Priest,
pour down upon me streams of needful grace,
bless me in all my undertakings,
in every thought of my mind,
every word of my lips,
every step of my feet,
every deed of my hands.
Thou didst live to bless,
die to bless,
rise to bless,
ascend to bless,
take thy throne to bless,
and now thou dost reign to bless.
O give sincerity to my desires,
earnestness to my supplications,
fervour to my love.

One last thought from Dr. Carson.

So far:

Much praying is not done because we don’t plan to pray.
Adopt practical ways to impede mental drift.
At various periods in your life, develop, if possible, a prayer-partner relationship.
Choose models, but choose them well.
Develop a system for your prayer lists.
Mingle praise, confession, and intercession; but when you intercede, try to tie as many requests as possible to Scripture.
If you are in any form of spiritual leadership, work at your public prayers.

Number 8:

Pray until you pray.

This is Puritan advice. Carson writes:

What they meant is that Christians should pray long enough and honestly enough, at a single session, to get past the feeling of formalism and unreality that attends not a little praying. we are especially prone to such feelings when we pray only for a few minutes, rushing to be done with a mere duty. To enter the spirit of prayer, we must stick to it for a while. If we “pray until we pray,” eventually we come to delight in God’s presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will. Even in dark or agonized praying, we somehow know we are doing business with God. In short, we discover a little of what Jude means when he exhorts his readers to “pray in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20)–which presumably means it is treacherously possible to pray not in the Spirit.

He ends with this:

In the Western world we urgently need this advice, for many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers. Pray until you pray.

Lord, let us linger.

Class on Saturday, PC?

You bet. This school on this subject never closes.

So far we have these principles:

Much praying is not done because we don’t plan to pray.
Adopt practical ways to impede mental drift.
At various periods in your life, develop, if possible, a prayer-partner relationship.
Choose models, but choose them well.
Develop a system for your prayer lists.
Mingle praise, confession, and intercession; but when you intercede, try to tie as many requests as possible to Scripture.

Now for number seven:

If you are in any form of spiritual leadership, work at your public prayers.

D. A. Carson exhorts:

Many facets of Christian discipleship, not least prayer, are rather more effectively passed on by modeling than by formal teaching. Good praying is more easily caught than taught. If it is right to say that we should choose models from whom we can learn, then the obverse truth is that we ourselves become responsible to become models for others. So whether you are leading a service or family prayers, whether you are praying in a small-group Bible study or at a convention, work at your public prayers.

Enough said. Time to work on my pastoral prayer for tomorrow.

My next wedding. No question about it.

Have you checked out the blog Of First Importance? I got it off J & A G’s blog. It includes a thought for the day to remember that which is most important, the gospel. Take a look.

Class is back in session.

The first five principles from Dr. Carson:

Much praying is not done because we don’t plan to pray.
Adopt practical ways to impede mental drift.
At various periods in your life, develop, if possible, a prayer-partner relationship.
Choose models, but choose them well.
Develop a system for your prayer lists.

Number six may be the most important in the list.

Mingle praise, confession, and intercession; but when you intercede, try to tie as many requests as possible to Scripture.

It’s that last phrase that impresses me as potentially vaulting this principle to the top of the list.

He writes:

Prayer is his ordained means of conveying his blessings to his people. That means we must pray according to his will, in line with his values, in conformity with his own character and purposes, claiming his own promises. Practically speaking, how do we do that?

Where shall we learn the will of God, the values of God, the character and purposes of God, the promises of God? We shall learn such things in the Scriptures he has graciously given us. But that means that when we pray, when we ask God for things, we must try to tie as many requests as possible to Scripture. That is an immensely practical step.

Ever since my planning week in Idaho back in May, the Lord has helped me pray through the flock every week, a certain portion each day. One of my requests for our people always involves praying back to God a verse or two from His word.

An immensely practical step indeed.

Those are the exact words of my oncologist today. I went in for my six-month check up. No sign of cancer. Thanks be to God. Blood work looks great. Neck and mouth clean as a whistle.

You have to understand that my dear doctor tends to the over cautious side. For him to say that my continuing to come in seems perfunctory, well, that’s a big deal. He still wants to see me in six months, but the end of ENT, radiation oncologist, and medical oncologist appointments seems imminent.

Next month I will observe the four year anniversary of the end of my treatment for head and neck cancer. Expect more posts as August arrives. For now, I’m basking in the word perfunctory. God is pleased to give me length of days. Praise Him for His glorious grace.