Robert Trail wrote, “Some ministers of meaner gifts and parts are more successful than some that are far above them in abilities; not because they preach better, so much as because they pray more. Many good sermons are lost for lack of much prayer in study.” . . . The church today desperately needs such preachers whose private prayers season their pulpit messages. The Puritan pastors jealously guarded their personal devotional time. They set their priorities on spiritual, eternal realities. They knew that if they cased to watch and pray constantly, they would be courting spiritual disaster.

Joel Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality (RHB, 2004), 164.

[Keeping the heart] includes earnest supplications and instant prayer for heart-purifying and rectifying grace, when sin has defiled and disordered it. So Psalm 19:12: “Cleanse thou me from secret faults”; and Psalm 86:11: “Unite my heart to fear Thy name.” Saints have always many such petitions pending before the throne of God’s grace. This is the thing which is most pleaded by them with God. When they are praying for outward mercies, perhaps their spirits may be more remiss; but when it comes to the heart case, then they extend their spirits to the utmost, fill their mouths with arguments, weep, and make supplication: “Oh, for a better heart! Oh, for a heart to love God more. Oh, for a heart to hate sin more and to walk more evenly with God. Lord, deny not to me such a heart whatever Thou deniest me! Give me a heart to fear Thee, love and delight in Thee, even if I beg my bread in desolate places.”

John Flavel, Keeping the Heart (SDG, 1998), 7.

Flavel’s description of autonomous man is worth pondering:

Man by degeneration has become a most disordered and rebellious creature, contesting with and opposing his Maker as the first cause by self-dependence; as the chief good by self-love; as the highest Lord by self-will; and as the last end by self-seeking. So he is quite disordered,, and all his acts are irregular. His illuminated understanding is clouded with ignorance, his complying will full of rebellion and stubbornness, his subordinate powers casting off the dominion and government of the superior faculties.

Sins like self-dependence, self-love, self-will, and self-seeking do not always asset themselves in notorious ways. By showing how each of these sins is rebellion against the Lordship of the Creator, Flavel strips them of their disguise and enables us to see the sinfulness of sin.

Source: John Flavel, Keeping the Heart (SDG, 1998), 5.

“The first thought of the godly man in every circumstance is God’s relation to him and it, and his and its relation to God. That is God-consciousness and that is what the fear of God entails.”

John Murray, Principles of Conduct, 238

Psalm 25

Of David.

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know your ways, O LORD;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.

Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O LORD!

Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt,
for it is great.
Who is the man who fears the LORD?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.

Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.

Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles.