Beautiful Prayers to Inspire Your Soul - Harvest House BEAUTIFUL PRAYERS to Inspire Your Soul...

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BEAUT IFUL PRAYERS

to Inspire Your Soul

S e l e c t e d & I n t r o d u c e d b y

Te r r y G l a s p e y

Beautiful Prayers Final.indd 1 12/10/15 9:39 PM

Copyrighted material

BEAUTIFUL PRAYERS to Inspire Your Soul

Text copyright © 2016 Terry Glaspey

Published by Harvest House PublishersEugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-6719-8 (hardcover) 978-0-7369-6720-4 (eBook)

Cover and Interior Design byDugan Design Group, Bloomington, Minnesota

Scripture quotations are taken from

The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®

Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News

Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The King James Version.

All images in this book were found in the British Library’s collections, are believed to be in the public domain, and can be viewed at www.bl.uk.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior

permission of the publisher.

Printed in China16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 / RDS / 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1



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To the Reader n the pages of this little book you’ll find a collection of some of the world’s most beloved prayers—prayers drawn directly from the pages of Scripture, classic prayers from some of the great saints and theologians and writers, and prayers of simple devotion from our own time. These are prayers which are beloved for their beauty of expression, for their soul-searching honesty, for their passionate insight into the depth of God’s love and the frailty of our human weakness, and for the clarity with which they say the things that we all sometimes feel, but often don’t know how to put into words.

These prayers remind us of the universality of our spiritual longings and experiences. People

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like Francis of Assisi, Augustine, Martin Luther, and Mother Teresa struggled with many of same temptations as you and me. They also recognized their own inadequacy and were aware of their own sins. At the same time, they knew what it was like to feel almost inexpressible gratitude toward God and were thankful for the motions of grace in their lives. They knew what it was to feel one’s heart bursting with praise or to experience the peace that arises from a sense of God’s presence. And they knew the embrace of God’s love.

When we join with them in prayer, we join a chorus of petitioners whose words echo down through the centuries, many of these prayers having been repeated countless times by people of faith who found focus, solace, and a deeper experi-ence of God through these shared words. Though some Christians might give much greater priority to personal, extemporaneous prayers from the heart, the prayers in this little book show us that written prayers can also be “from the heart,” and



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that their beauty of expression, profound theologi-cal insight, and authentic honesty can give us just the words we need to lift our hearts and minds Godward. We have no hesitation about singing hymns of praise that were penned by others, so why should we be shy about using the prayers of others to help us lift our needs and desires to God?

So I invite you to join me in making some of these prayers your own. Pray them slowly, savor-ing each phrase so that they might become part of your own personal vocabulary of prayer. And return again and again to those which best express your own sentiments or which stir your heart and mind to a new and deeper way of living and believ-ing. May these prayers challenge you, inspire you, comfort you, and draw you closer to God.

Terry Glaspey



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od, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can,And the wisdom to know the difference.R e i n h o l d n i e b u h R



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ord, make me an instrument of Your peace;Where there is hatred, let me sow love;Where there is injury, pardon;Where there is error, truth;Where there is doubt, faith;Where there is despair, hope;Where there is darkness, light;And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seekTo be consoled as to console;To be understood as to understand;To be loved as to love.For it is in giving that we receive;It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.Amen.

f R a n c i s o f a s s i s i

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A hrist with me, Christ before me, Christ beside me,Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise.Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,Christ in every eye that sees me,Christ in every ear that hears me.Salvation is of the Lord,Salvation is of the Christ,May Your salvation, Lord, be ever with us.s t . p a t R i c k



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Prayer is to the spiritual life what the beating of the pulse and the drawing of the breath are to the life of the body.

J O H N H E N R Y N E W M A N



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ur Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.Thy kingdom come.Thy will be done in earth,As it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread,And forgive us our debts,As we forgive our debtors.And lead us not into temptation,But deliver us from evil:For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,Forever. Amen.

t h e l o R d ’ s p R a y e R M a t t h e w 6 : 9 - 1 3



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y Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.I cannot know for certain where it will lead.Nor do I really know myself, and the factThat I think I am following Your will does not meanThat I am actually doing so.But I believe that the desire to please YouDoes in fact please You.And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.



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I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.And I know that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road,Though I may know nothing about it.Therefore I trust You always, though I may seem to be lostAnd in the shadow of death.I will not fear, for You are ever with me,And You will never leave me to face my perils alone.t h o M a s M e R t o n



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