Puritan Prayer:
Grace for the weary
Lord, we know your words, “The Lord God has given me a well-taught tongue, so I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.”
I am one of those wearied souls, Lord. I am wearied with my temptations, wearied with inward trouble.
So now, Lord, speak a word in due season to this poor, wounded, and wearied soul.
Let me serve you, Lord—that is all my desire. Let me see you as you please, when you please.
I am done, Lord, I am done. I have questioned and questioned my condition these many years. And I see there is no end of such questioning. I get nothing by it.
I am a poor, weak creature, and I fear I will never be able to bear testimony of the truth of Jesus Christ. But you have said, “I will give power to my two witnesses.” I am one of your witnesses. Now then, Lord, give power to me, for I am poor.
I see the sinfulness of sin, so let me also see the graciousness of grace, and the fullness of Christ. I come to you for righteousness, because I see my sin is exceedingly sinful.
O Lord, keep my soul in the ocean of your free love. Amen.
—William Bridge
William Bridge, “Grace for the Weary,” in Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans, ed. Robert Elmer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 28.