The Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett.

Dear Reader, 

Thank you for stopping by. 

Recently, I bought a copy of the book "The Valley of Vision", a collection of Puritan prayers and devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett, from Amazon. It is a very encouraging collection of prayers. 

The first prayer itself is entitled "The Valley of Vision" and really uplifting. Below, is what I read:

THE VALLEY OF VISION

LORD, HIGH AND HOLY, MEEK AND LOWLY,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,

    where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;

    hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox

    that the way down is the way up,

    that to be low is to be high,

    that the broken heart is the healed heart,

    that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

    that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

    that to have nothing is to possess all,

    that to bear the cross it to wear the crown,

    that to give is to receive,

    that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells,

    and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness,

                    thy joy in my sorrow,

                    thy grace in my sin,

                    thy riches in my poverty,

                    thy glory in my valley.

Hope the above puritan prayer has been an encouragement to you, just as it is to me. Thank you for stopping by. Have a blessed day! 

Best Regards,

Nancie 

(19 November 2024)

Comforts and Encouragements Even amidst the Storms of Life

Dear Reader,

Thank you for stopping by. Below, is a very encouraging prayer that my friend shared with me. The prayer is quoted from a Devotional "Even amidst the storms of life!" on the website of Grace Gems. 

This prayer is very encouraging and comforting to me. It reminds me of the love of God for His beloved people who are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His sovereignty in their life no matter what happens to them or whatever they are going through in the various changing scenes of their life. The Lord Jesus loves His people with an everlasting love and is faithfully working all things to His own glory and the good of His beloved people.

May God use this prayer and the devotional to encourage and comfort you, and for your eternal good. If you are facing difficulties and your are hurting, grieving and or in pain, may God comforts you through His Words and this devotional by Grace Gems. 

If you are not a Christian yet, may God use His Words and this Devotional to lead you to seek after the Lord Jesus, to know His saving gra, to love Him and experience His lovingkindness, tender mercies and unfailing sovereignty through the changing scenes in your life. 

"Heavenly Father,

Help me to trust in Thy unerring wisdom in all things. Remind me that Thy ways are higher than my ways, and that every situation I face is under Thy sovereign control. When I feel beaten down and discouraged, help me to meditate on Thy precious promises, and find peace in the knowledge that Thou art indeed working all things for my soul's benefit. May I learn to embrace whatever Thou ordain for me, knowing that all is for Thy glory, and my eternal good. In Jesus' name, Amen." 

The above prayer is quoted from a Devotional "Even amidst the storms of life!" on the website of Grace Gems foe 22 September 2024. It is under the category of  Puritan Devotional. The Scriptures are from Ephesians 1:3-4; Romans 8:28. 

"3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:" Ephesians 1:3-4 

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

To read the whole devotional and other devotionals on Grace Gems Website:

https://www.gracegems.org/Grace_Gems.htm

To listen to the audio Reading of this devotional article Online or Download it:

https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/gracegems/sermons/9232435476634/

Thank you for stopping by. Have a blessed day! 

Best Regards

Nancie

(2 October 2024)

Please pray for Emily

My friend, Peggy, has just started a new meme on Monday called "Mission 4 Monday".

The purpose of MISSION 4 MONDAY is to share YOUR MISSION each week.

I am so thankful that I can participate in Mission 4 Monday. I posted my first Mission 4 Monday yesterday entitled "Trust during rough times".

While visiting Mission 4 Monday blogs, I came across Liza's Eyeview. Liza shared about her friend Emily who was hit by car last Wednesday afternoon. She was in a crosswalk, almost on the sidewalk, when a car suddenly struck her causing her to "fly" 40 to 45 feet unconscious and land on a curb!Emily suffered multiple fractures. When she first arrived at the emergency room, the initial prognosis was dim. Her case was called "severe".

I would like to request that we keep Emily and her family in prayers during this trying time. May our gracious Lord Jesus Christ preserve and restore Emily according to His mercies and grace. May He grant the Doctors and other medical professionals much wisdom to treat Emily. May our good Lord also comfort Emily's family and friends as they commit her to Him and look to Him together for Emily's preservation and restoration. God knows what is best for Emily. He is working all things for His glory, her good and the good of His beloved people even in such a time as this. May we unite our hearts in prayers and bring this family before our Heavenly Father's throne of grace as often as we can.

Liza has kindly developed a new blog for Emily called Praying For Emily". Do visit this blog for latest update and send your encouragements to this family, if you can. They need as much support as possible in this crucial time. May God continue to shower His love, mercies and comfort upon Emily, her family and friends.

Thank God for the privilege that we can pray for one another through all the changing scenes in life, knowing that God loves us and He will work His best for us. With God all things are possible. He is able to heal and restore us, or give us sufficient grace to sustain us in the afflictions and trials in life. May His will be done as we are fully assured that His will is always the best.

Thank you for praying for Emily and her family and friends!

Thanks for dropping by. Take care and have a blessed day!

"Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." Jeremiah 33:3

Learning from our experiences

I just visited Syd's blog "Bipolarity" and am greatly encouraged to read of the Lord's mercies to her in her current struggles with recurrence depression. Syd wrote :

However, I believe that what really turned my situation around is the most commonly available and absolutely free "medication" known to man... prayer. When I finally realized that I would never be able to resolve all of the issues I was facing by myself, I realized that I had no choice but to let them go. Instead asking "Why me?", I asked "Why?" And when I did, I began to realize that much more important than the pain I was facing was the lesson the pain was meant to teach me. Instead of asking for specific answers to specific prayer requests, I started praying that "Thy will be done." Then, I did something that was truly revolutionary for me. Not only did I significantly increase the amount and intensity of my prayer time, but during that time, I stopped talking, and started listening. And the more I listened, the more I heard. And the more I heard, the better I felt. And now, a mere week later, I can honestly say that many of the issues have been resolved - completely. And equally as important, for those that remain, my perspective towards them has changed. While things may not appear much different to the untrained eye from the outside, I know on the inside that I'm going to be OK.

Thank God that He draw us nearer to Him and give us peace as we learn to cast our cares and anxieties, confusions and pains, to Him. God has a purpose in allowing us to go through various experiences in life. We are sinners saved by grace and pilgrims in a fallen world. Therefore we can expect all kinds of challenges daily and very often much tribulation. I am reminded that we are through much tribulation to enter into the kingdom of God.

Every one of us has a cross to carry daily. Yours differ from mine. I will not be able to carry your cross no matter how light I think it looks to me. Neither can you carry mine. But God give us grace daily to carry our crosses and follow Him. He has many lessons to teach us of Himself, ourselves and others, and what really matters in life.

Recently, I experienced much mood swings partly due to the after effect for many weeks of manic, partly due to various challenges I am facing some of which are extremely stressful. Stress is something I am still learning to manage and I know from past experiences that if I do not manage stress well or reduce it to a manageable level, it will bring about a relapse of severe depression.

What can I learn from my difficult experiences recently? I am learning through this difficult experience to be more dependent upon God. Jim reminded me :

"The main thing to understand and remember is that Jesus is MY SHEPHERD that He will supply all my needs (Phil. 4:19) and that He knows everything about my life (Ps. 139:3), cares about me (1 Pet. 5:7), has the power for every difficulty (Ps. 62:11), is perfecting me to be like Christ (Phil. 1:6), and that nothing escapes Him (Ps. 147:5), that will lead me to be stable, not anxious living."

I realized that some times I failed to apply Scripture Truths to certain situations in my life and my feelings and emotions can overwhelmed me. It's a moment by moment looking to God and keep clinging on to His precious promises, irregardless of outward circumstances. There may be times in my life when God allows me to go through difficult experiences for His own purposes. As I looked back now, these have all been growing experiences for me in which I know God's love and mercies better.

I thank God for sustaining me through the last few weeks. The situations in my life have not changed very much but God has strengthened me. I have much peace and joy in Him now as I learn to cast my cares upon Him and look to Him. There may be many and various challenges ahead of me, I pray the Lord will keep my eyes upon Him and grant me the grace to wait upon Him and to seek to walk in His ways, knowing that He loved me and is with me.