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Walking Through the Valley of Vision

Justin Bond Filed Under: Labels: , ,

In the second and last part of this series I will be sharing the reading plan that I use for one part of my prayer life. The Valley of Vision is a great blessing that we have from some Godly men in our past and is a great aid to help our prayer life. Use this and I hope it will help you grow in your prayer life and communion with God!

The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers, and one of the most helpful and refreshing resources on prayer I have found. It’s one of two or three books on prayer that I regularly recommend to people who want to grow in the discipline. I have benefitted from reading and praying through the book so much over the years I wanted to find a way to maximize its usefulness, and get the most out of it for my own spiritual growth. So, a couple years ago I developed a schedule and rhythm for my personal use of the Valley of Vision.

I rearranged the prayers into 3 daily readings, five days a week, and scheduled them to be read/prayed at 9am, 12pm, and 3pm Monday through Friday. This method took me through the entire Valley of Vision in 13 weeks, only repeating two prayers one time.

To stay on top of the discipline I used the calendar/alarm feature on my phone to alert me when it was time to pray (otherwise I would forget), and with those alerts I would stop whatever I was doing, pull out the Valley of Vision, spend a moment in prayer with the assigned reading, and then return to work. If I was in a meeting, I would excuse myself, step outside or even hit the washroom, and meet with God. Occasionally I found myself in a situation where I simply had to wait before I could get away, but most of the time I could slip away without a problem.

I found that when using this schedule, my days were rich with an awareness of God’s grace, and I was encouraged me to look to God throughout the day in a new way. I looked forward to these appointments/interruptions and my prayer life is better because of it.

I thought others might benefit from the exercise, so I asked Brian Malcolm to design a printable version for download. He was able to fit the entire schedule onto one page so you can easily print it and tuck or tape it inside your own copy of the Valley of Vision. He has created versions for the leather bound edition, as well as the paperback (page numbers and sizes are different).



You should consider this guide and approach to prayer as one tool to help you seek God and maintain a posture of prayer throughout the day. It should not be the totality of your prayer life. Think of this as a means of fueling your meditation on Scripture, dependency on the gospel, and exercise of faith in and love for Jesus. I have used this schedule a few times now and have been richly rewarded. I hope it’s a blessing to you as well.

To download the Walking Through The Valley of Vision prayer guide head over to its dedicated page here

If you don’t already have one, you can order your copy of The Valley of Vision here (leather), or here (paperback).

Thanks to Joe Thorn for his time to create a plan for saints to grow!
http://www.joethorn.net/2010/09/30/walking-through-the-valley/

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