Our total dependence on GodSteve CornellThe most important spiritual lesson we can learn is that humans were not meant to live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:1-5). This is the truth emphasized in Proverbs 3:5-7- "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil." I am continually relearning this great lesson of my need to be totally dependent on God. Here is an old Puritan prayer expressing this dependence on God's mercy, grace and Spirit:Father of Mercies, Hear me for Jesus' sake. I am sinful even in my closest walk with you; it is of your mercy that I did not die long ago; Your grace has given me in the cross by which you have reconciled yourself to me and me to you, drawing me by your great love, declaring me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself. Giver of all graces, I look to you for strength to maintain them in me, for it is hard to practice what I believe. Strengthen me against temptations. My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin, a river of corruption since childhood days, flowing on in every pattern of behavior; You have disarmed me of the means in which I trusted, and I have no strength but in you. You alone can hold back my evil ways, but without your grace to sustain me I fall. Satan's darts quickly inflame me, and the shield that should quench them easily drops from my hand: Empower me against his wiles and assaults. Keep me sensible of my weakness, and of my dependence upon your strength. Let every trial teach me more of your peace, more of your love. Your Holy Spirit is given to increase your graces, and I cannot preserve or improve them unless he works continually in me. May he confirm my trust in your promised help, and let me walk humbly in dependence upon you, for Jesus' sake. (From The Valley of Vision, contemporized by me).For more prayers from the puritans, http://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/category/puritans/