Richard Baxter: Piercing Heaven – Puritan’s Prayers

Can such a heart be worth having? Make it so, Lord, and then it is yours. Take it to yourself, and then take me.

Like a feeble child to a tender mother I look up to you and stretch out my hands. I long to have you take them.

You know I am not weary of your work. I am willing to stay while you here employ me. I dare not be so impatient of living, as to beg you to cut off my time. Nor would I stay when my work is done, and remain under your feet.

I am content, Lord, to wait for your time, and go your way, if you will take me into your barn when you see that I am ripe.

I am content to wait, but not to lose you. Quicken my dull desires, and blow on the dying spark of love. Do not leave me until I can sincerely cry out, “As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him?”

Draw forth my soul to yourself by the secret power of your love, as the sunshine in the spring draws creatures from their winter homes. Meet it halfway, draw me to yourself, like a compass is drawn to the north.

Dispel the clouds that hide your love from me, or remove the scales that keep my eyes from beholding you. For only the beams that stream from your face, and the taste of your salvation, can make a soul say, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.”

Amen.