Creator, Upholder, and Proprietor of all things, we cannot escape from Your presence and control, nor do we desire to do so. Our privilege is to be under the agency of Your omnipotence, righteousness, wisdom, patience, mercy and grace. For You are love with more than parental affection. We admire Your goodness, stand in awe of Your power, humble ourselves before Your purity. It is the discovery of Your goodness alone that can banish our fear.

Help us to bemoan and confess our sins. We reflect on our past guilt and are conscious of our present unworthiness. We bless You that Your steadfast love and attributes are essential to our happiness and hope. You have demonstrated Your grace and mercy, in the bounties of nature, in the fullness of Your providence, in the revelations of Scripture, in the gift of Your Son, in the proclamation of the Gospel.

Make us willing to be saved according to Your way, perceiving nothing in ourselves but all in Jesus. Help us not only to receive Him but to walk in Him, depend upon Him, commune with Him, follow Him as dear children, imperfect, but still pressing forward. Let us not complain of labor, but value rest, not murmur under trials, but be thankful for our state. And in so doing let us silence the ignorance of foolish men.

Adapted, The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers and devotionals.