John Howe: Piercing Heaven – Puritan’s Prayers

O Lord, my only resort is to your mercy. You might most justly abhor and abandon us, and say to us, “Lo-ammi. You are none of my people.”

But in the multitude of your tender compassion and mercy, do it not.

Lord, here I am, wholly yours. I come to surrender myself, my whole life and being, to be entirely and always at your disposal, and for your use. Accept a devoted, self-resigning soul.

I have here brought you back a stray, a wandering creature—my own self. I heard what the Redeemer has done and suffered to reconcile us. Against your known design, I can no longer withhold myself from your plan for me.

And I yield myself to you, because I love you. I make an offer of myself to be your servant—your servant, O Lord. You have loosed my bonds, and now I desire to bind myself in new ones to you, that are never to be loosed.

Amen.