Puritan Prayers
Prayer for a new heart
Lord, is it not better to make me your friend than to let me continue as your enemy?
Would you not be glorified more by raising a soul from sin than a Lazarus from the grave? Your power and mercy are shown greater by turning a dry stump into a fruitful and flourishing tree. So overcome my shameful nature by your merciful power. Change me from a venomous to a dove-like nature.
I would be made happy to glorify you by becoming what I was created to be! Glorify yourself by creating my heart anew, that I may glorify you in newness of life.
I cannot get a new heart by my own strength, but it is not too hard for your power, and it matches your promise. Amen.
—Stephen Charnock
Stephen Charnock, “Prayer for a New Heart,” in Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans, ed. Robert Elmer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 31.