Painting by George Elgar Hicks (1824 – 1914). He was an English painter during the Victorian era.
I have a prayer by a nameless Puritan about prayer itself, 8 paragraphs of “In prayer, I . . .” The first paragraph, my favorite of the eight, is the introduction to the experience of the eternal in prayer itself:
In Prayer, O Lord, I launch far out into the eternal world, and on that broad ocean my soul triumphs over all evils on the shores of mortality. Time, with its glad amusements and cruel disappointments, never appears so inconsiderate as then.
This is a wonderful image of the soul touching eternity and contacting the eternal God.
The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
The Bible says we have eternity in our hearts. It is hard to find it there sometimes.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
Here is the remainder of the Puritan prayer, “In Prayer”:
In prayer I see myself as nothing; I find my heart going after You with intensity, and long with vehement thirst to live to You. Blessed be the strong gales of the Spirit that speed me on my way to the New Jerusalem.
In prayer all things here below vanish, and nothing seems important but holiness of heart and the salvation of others.
In prayer all my worldly cares, fears, anxieties disappear, and are of as little significance as a puff of wind.
In prayer my soul inwardly exults with lively thoughts at what You are doing for Your church, and I long that You should get a great name from sinners returning to Zion.
In prayer I am lifted above the frowns and flatteries of life, and taste heavenly joys; entering into the eternal world I can give myself to You with all my heart, to be Yours forever.
In prayer I can place all my concerns in Your hands, to be entirely at Your disposal, having no will or interest of my own.
In prayer I can intercede for my friends, ministers, sinners, the church, Your kingdom to come, with greatest freedom, ardent hopes, as a son to his father, as a lover to the beloved.
Help me to be all prayer and never to cease praying.
BETWEEN TWO CITIES 
Leave a Reply