Philip Doddridge: Piercing Heaven – Puritan’s Prayers

Have pity, O Lord, upon our weakness, and give us a better mind to understand the true sense of your word.

Give us a simplicity of heart to receive it, the integrity to declare it, and a zeal to teach and defend it.

And while we are doing so, or while we are doing any other work you have assigned us, wherever you place us in life, whatever difficulties may surround us, whatever sorrows may depress us, let us with pleasure hear you proclaiming, “Behold, I come quickly, I come to end the labor and suffering of my servants. I come, and my reward of grace is with me, to reward every work of faith and labor of love.”

Let us hear you say that you are coming to receive your faithful persevering people to yourself, to dwell forever in that blissful world, where knowledge, holiness, and joy will be poured in upon our souls in a more immediate, nobler, and more effectual manner.

Amen, even so come Lord Jesus!

Hasten the blessed hour to us, and to all your churches. And in the meantime, may your grace be with us to keep alive the remembrance of your love, and the expectation of your coming, in our hearts.

Animate us to be and act in a way that honors the blessings we have already received, and the nobler joy you have taught us to seek.

Amen.