A prayer centering on the crucifixion and resurrection realities in our lives. Leave it to the Puritans to write one like this.
O Lord,
I marvel that you would become incarnate, be crucified, dead and buried.
The sepulcher calls forth my adoring wonder, for it is empty and you are risen; the four-fold
gospel attests it, the living witnesses prove it, my heart's experience knows it.
Give me to die with you that I may rise to new life, for I wish to be as dead and buried to sin, to
selfishness, to the world; that I might not hear the voice of the charmer, and might be
delivered from his lusts.
O Lord, there is much ill about me - crucify it; much flesh within me - mortify it.
Purge me from selfishness, the fear of man, the love of approbation, the shame of being
thought old-fashioned, the desire to be cultivated or modern.
Let me reckon my old life dead because of crucifixion, and never feed it as a living thing.
Grant me to stand with my dying Savior, to be content to be rejected, to be willing to take up
unpopular truths, and to hold fast despised teachings until death.
Help me to be resolute and Christ-contained.
Never let me wander from the path of obedience to your will.
Strengthen me for the battles ahead.
Give me courage for all the trials, and grace for all the joys.
Help me to be a holy, happy person, free from every wrong desire, from everything contrary to
your mind.
Grant me more and more of the resurrection life: may it rule me, may I walk in its power, and be
strengthened through its influence.
- A Puritan prayer, "Crucifixion and Resurrection," as quoted in The Valley of Vision