Confession and Petition from The Valley of Vision

As we continue to pray and ask God for revival and spiritual awakening for Dolton, IL we are reminded by the Holy Spirit that certain conditions must be met in us before God will hear us and respond to our prayers. Our personal and collective sins must be addressed before God will move on our behalf.

When the children of Israel asked why God wasn't answering their prayers, the answer came, "Behold, the Lord's hand in not shortened that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have seperated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear". (Isaiah 59:1-2)

There is no sin too small to hinder prayer. As you pray for revival, remember that humility, confession, and repentance are pre-requisites for cleansing, forgiveness, and restoration of God's blessing.

The following prayer is from a collection of Puritan Prayers entitled The Valley of Vision.

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering 'no' to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.