Valley of VisionWould you like a good aid in your prayer and devotional time?  I recommend a small book that gives glimpses into the character of God, brings reminders of His enduring love, and has the biggest punch you’ll ever get outside of the Bible.

The Valley of Vision, edited by Arthur G. Bennett.

It doesn’t have the most attractive cover, although the leather version is super nice.

I keep this book next to my Bible and use it more than any other resource in my morning time with the Father. It’s not a book of promises, or a list of threats to get the slack out of your feeble prayer life lest ye be cast into the abyss. Nor are these prayers sugar-coated to feed an ego and make you feel good about yourself. Using this in your devotional time will bring a focus of priorities— Mark 12:30 & Matthew 6:33; guidance in prayers of praise, repentance, self-examination, and food to strengthen your faith.

These prayers are from spiritual giants such as Isaac Watts (1674-1748); John Bunyan (1628-1688); Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892); Augustus Toplady (1740-1778); Richard Baxter (1615-1691); and the list goes on.  How can you go wrong learning from the prayers of these guys? You can’t.

A description from the publisher’s website (www.banneroftruth.org) includes this:

“The strength of Puritan character and life lay in prayer and meditation. In this practice the spirit of prayer was regarded as of first importance and the best form of prayer, for living prayer is the characteristic of genuine spirituality. Yet prayer is also vocal and may therefore on occasions be written. Consequently in the Puritan tradition there are many written prayers and meditations which constitute an important corpus of inspiring devotional literature.

“Too often ex tempore prayer lacks variety, order and definiteness. The reason for this lies partly in a neglect of due preparation. It is here that the care and scriptural thoroughness which others found necessary in their approach to God may be of help. This book has been prepared not to ‘supply’ prayers but to prompt and encourage the Christian as he treads the path on which others have gone before.”

Interested? Here is blog post that contains one of the prayers.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/01/30/the-valley-of-vision/

How about a link answering questions about the prayers and poems in the book:

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2013/07/11/valley-of-vision/

Enjoy and grow.

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