Use the prayers of those who have gone before us to help prompt and inspire prayer. In addition to the prayers quoted below, there are also very good books that compile prayers and liturgies. Two possibilities include: The Valley of Vision edited by Arthur Bennett, and Every Moment Holy by Douglas Kaine McKelvey. Some devotional books also include a prayer at the beginning/end of every chapter. These prayers can also be very helpful for prompting prayer. Two examples include: With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray, and The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer. With all of these different written prayers, you can pray them verbatim, paraphrase them, or use them to launch into your own prayers. It can also be helpful to start your own prayer journal where you compile written prayers that you found useful.
A prayer of trust and surrender
Thank you, Lord, that you are with me. I entrust this time to you, I entrust myself to you, for you to do as you please. “May it be done unto me.” Amen.
Brother Lawrence
The Practice of the Presence of God
My God who is with me, in trust and obedience to you, as I apply myself to what you have put before me, please give me grace to continue in your presence and do all out of love for you. To this end, please enable me, assist me and prosper me, for without you I can do nothing good.
Father, please receive all my works, and possess all my affections. Amen.
John Owen
The Mortification of Sin (paraphrased)
Lord, I am a poor, weak creature; unstable as water, I cannot excel. This corruption is too hard for me, and it is at the very door of ruining myself; and what to do I know not. My soul has become as parched ground, and a habitation of dragons. I have made promises and broken them; my vows and engagements have been empty. I plainly see, that without some immediate help and assistance, I am lost. But yet, though this be my state and condition, let the hands that hang down be lifted up, and the feeble knees be strengthened. Lord Jesus, You have all fullness of grace in Your heart, all fullness of power in Your hand, You are able to slay all these enemies. There is sufficient provision in You for my relief and assistance. You can take my drooping, dying soul and make me more than a conqueror.
St. Augustine
Confessions
What then is my God, what but the Lord God? For who is Lord but the Lord, or who is God but our God?
O Thou, the greatest and the best, mightiest, almighty, most merciful and most just, utterly hidden and utterly present, most beautiful and most strong, abiding yet mysterious, suffering no change and changing all things: never new, never old, making all things new, bringing age upon the proud and they know it not; ever in action, ever at rest, gathering all things to Thee and needing none; sustaining and fulfilling and protecting, creating and nourishing and making perfect; ever seeking though lacking nothing.
Thomas à Kempis
The Imitation of Christ (paraphrased)
O Lord my God, you are all my good, and who am I that I should dare to speak to you? I am the very poorest of your servants, much poorer and weaker, more broken and sinful than I know or dare to say.
Nevertheless remember, O my Lord, that I am nothing, I have nothing, and can do nothing. You only are good, just, and holy; you can do all things, are over all things, and fill all things, leaving empty only the sinner.
Call to my mind your tender mercies and fill my heart with your grace, you who desire that none of your work should return void.
How can I bear this broken life unless your mercy and grace strengthen me? Don’t turn your face away from me, don’t delay your coming! Do not withdraw your comfort from me, lest my soul gasp and pant for you like a thirsty land.
Lord, teach me to do your will, teach me to walk humbly and uprightly before you, for you are my wisdom, you who know me fully and truly, and knew me before the world was made or ever I was born.
Bernard of Clairvaux
On Loving God
Let me contemplate compassion so marvelous and so undeserved, favor so free and so well attested, kindness so unexpected, mercy so unconquerable, and grace so amazing… Let them move me to run swiftly, all on fire with love, to the Lover of my soul…
Come Lord Jesus, rejoice in visiting my heart as I faithfully meditate on your mercy shown in dying for us, and your mighty power in rising again. Together, these manifest your glory. So easily the warmth of my love languishes and grows cold — yet you are the one who sustains me, wholly bent on saving us, Your Bride…
How vast is your work of redemption — how much you spoke, what wonders you worked, what hardships you endured, what shame you suffered. “What reward shall I give to the Lord for all the benefits which he has done unto me?” In the first creation you gave me myself, but in the new creation you gave me yourself, and by that gift restored to me the self I had lost.
Andrew Murray
Humility (paraphrased)
My Father, from your great goodness please make known to me and take away from my heart every kind, form, and degree of pride, no matter its source. Please awaken in me the deepest depth and truth of humility, which makes us capable of receiving the fullness of your light and your Holy Spirit. Amen
The Valley of Vision
compiled by Arthur Bennett
The Love of Jesus
O FATHER OF JESUS,
Help me to approach thee with deepest
reverence,
not with presumption,
not with servile fear, but with holy boldness.
Thou art beyond the grasp of my understanding,
but not beyond that of my love.
Thou knowest that I love thee supremely,
for thou art supremely adorable, good, perfect.
My heart melts at the love of Jesus,
my brother, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,
married to me, dead for me, risen for me;
He is mine and I am his,
given to me as well as for me;
I am never so much mine as when I am his,
or so much lost to myself until lost in him;
then I find my true manhood.
But my love is frost and cold, ice and snow;
Let his love warm me,
lighten my burden,
be my heaven;
May it be more revealed to me in all its influences
that my love to him may be more fervent
and glowing;
Let the mighty tide of his everlasting love
cover the rocks of my sin and care;
Then let my spirit float above those things
which had else wrecked my life.
Make me fruitful by living to that love,
my character becoming more beautiful every day.
If traces of Christ’s love-artistry be upon me,
may he work on with his divine brush
until the complete image be obtained
and I be made a perfect copy of him,
my Master.
O Lord Jesus, come to me,
O Divine Spirit, rest upon me,
O Holy Father, look on me in mercy
for the sake of the well-beloved.
Spiritus Sanctus
O HOLY SPIRIT,
As the sun is full of light,
the ocean full of water,
Heaven full of glory, so may my heart be
full of thee.
Vain are all divine purposes of love
and the redemption wrought by Jesus
except thou work within,
regenerating by thy power,
giving me eyes to see Jesus,
showing me the realities of the unseen world.
Give me thyself without measure,
as an unimpaired fountain,
as inexhaustible riches.
I bewail my coldness, poverty, emptiness,
imperfect vision, languid service,
prayerless prayers, praiseless praises.
Suffer me not to grieve or resist thee.
Come as power,
to expel every rebel lust, to reign supreme
and keep me thine;
Come as teacher,
leading me into all truth, filling me with
all understanding;
Come as love,
that I may adore the Father, and love him
as my all;
Come as joy,
to dwell in me, move in me, animate me;
Come as light,
illuminating the Scripture, moulding me
in its laws;
Come as sanctifier,
body, soul and spirit wholly thine;
Come as helper,
with strength to bless and keep, directing my
every step;
Come as beautifier,
bringing order out of confusion, loveliness
out of chaos.
Magnify to me thy glory by being magnified in me,
and make me redolent of thy fragrance.
Regeneration
O GOD OF THE HIGHEST HEAVEN,
Occupy the throne of my heart,
take full possession and reign supreme,
lay low every rebel lust,
let no vile passion resist thy holy war;
manifest thy mighty power,
and make me thine for ever.
Thou art worthy to be
praised with my every breath,
loved with my every faculty of soul,
served with my every act of life.
Thou hast loved me, espoused me, received me,
purchased, washed, favoured, clothed,
adorned me,
when I was worthless, vile, soiled, polluted.
I was dead in iniquities,
having no eyes to see thee,
no ears to hear thee,
no taste to relish thy joys,
no intelligence to know thee;
But thy Spirit has quickened me,
has brought me into a new world as a
new creature,
has given me spiritual perception,
has opened to me thy Word as light, guide,
solace, joy.
Thy presence is to me a treasure of unending peace;
No provocation can part me from thy sympathy,
for thou hast drawn me with cords of love,
and dost forgive me daily, hourly.
O help me then to walk worthy of thy love,
of my hopes, and my vocation.
Keep me, for I cannot keep myself;
Protect me that no evil befall me;
Let me lay aside every sin admired of many;
Help me to walk by thy side, lean on thy arm,
hold converse with thee,
That henceforth I may be salt of the earth
and a blessing to all.
A. W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God
Following Hard after God
O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Restoring the Creator-Creature Relation
O God, be Thou exalted over my possessions. Nothing of earth’s treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified in my life. Be Thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that Thou shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the earth. Be Thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses, I shall keep my vow made this day before Thee. Be Thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as a dream. Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions, above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and even my life itself. Let me decrease that Thou mayest increase, let me sink that Thou mayest rise above. Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon the humble little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass, and let me hear the children cry to Thee, “Hosanna in the highest.”