Life is hard, and it doesn’t necessarily get easier when you follow God. Bad things happen. You hurt others, others hurt you, and sometimes it feels like everything is bearing down on you all at once.

Have you ever been so burdened by the trials of life that your heart bursts forth in desperate cries to God? That’s what this prayer and the ones to follow are. For better or for worse, regardless of the literal or actual nature of the circumstances they allude to, they are the honest cries of a human heart.

If you are in a place of deep need and pain, may these cries of one man encourage you to know that you are not alone.

• Introduction by Jenny Fulton

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Outpourings of the Heart #1

By John Fulton

In a vision of the night I saw Your holy fire sweeping towards me.

Your holy fire as tall as a mountain that consumes all unrighteousness before it.

In a vision of the night I saw Your holy fire racing towards me consuming the unrighteous as it came.

Yet I was unafraid, and it did not consume me.

In a vision of the night I saw Your holy fire, the fire that burns the chaff but leaves the wheat, consume me not.

“How can this be?” my soul cries to You.

How can this be?

How can it be that I was not consumed?

How can it be that I was not afraid of Your consuming fire, for I know my sins—my sins that weigh me down and bow my back under their oppressive weight…

Yet You have shown me the reality of my heart.

You have declared I am not Your enemy.

You have declared I am not a scoffer.

You have declared I am a son, a priest, and a king in Your kingdom.

You have looked into the truth of my heart and declared truths too wonderful for me.

I perceive myself a sinner; You see a saint.

I perceive myself a failure; You see a beloved son.

I perceive myself a man of unclean lips, a man not worthy of You, a worm fit to be crushed; You see an honored servant, faithful and loyal.

Grant me, O’ Lord, to see what You see.

Grant me, O’ Lord, to renew my mind and think Your thoughts.

Grant me, O’ Spirit, the strength to live and believe this truth that is too wondrous to believe without You.

-Selah-

In a vision of the night I saw Your holy fire destroy the proud and the haughty but leave me untouched.

In a vision of the night You came to me with a vision of hope and comfort, a vision to reveal to me my true self, a vision to give strength  and aid in a time of distress.

My soul cries out to You, O’ My God – grant me strength to see myself as You see me.

My soul cries out to You, O’ My Father – grant me strength to cast off the lies.

My soul cries out to You, O’ My God – show me how to renew my mind that Your truth regarding me might find a welcoming home in which to abide.

-Selah-

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* Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay