Quite possibly the best book I've read all year. These prayers are amazing. In Mudhouse Sabbath, Lauren Winner talks about the benefit of a formal prayer book. She notes that her free-form prayers often devolve into narcissism (this has definitely been my experience), but that the formal, written prayers refocus her on God. This book is a great example of the benefit of written prayers. My own free-form prayers often send me down a rabbit hole of my own personal worries and burdens--worries and burdens that I am right to share with God. But I think every one of the prayers in this book contains the Gospel, and when I read them, I am preaching the Gospel to myself. Instead of bringing my problems to God for Him to change, I find my focus shifting to my own sin, God's grace, Christ's sacrifice, and my own undeserved salvation. The Valley of Vision is a collection of prayers, 195 in all, compiled by Arthur Bennett from various men from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, including John Bunyan, Thomas Watson, David Brainerd, Isaac Watts, Augustus Toplady, Philip Doddridge, and Charles Spurgeon, as well as others. These short, devotional, poetic prayers are a wonderful way to start and/or end each day. They would serve well for private, personal devotions and meditation, or for family worship. In this passage, we read about a man who will take the brunt of the blame for this collapse of leadership. Shebna was a servant of King Hezekiah. He was a steward … over the house and also a record keeper or scribe ( 2 Kings 18:18, Isaiah 37:2). Either by famine or pestilence in the siege, as many died, Jeremiah 14:18; 38:2, or in their flight, as others were; both which were inglorious kinds of death.” Poole I will weep bitterly, do not labor to comfort me:

I can’t help but recommend this for your family worship time. We teach our children how to pray, and in learning how to pray from the puritans we’d set them on down a pretty good path. I’d also recommend it to you as high tier birthday present, anniversary present, and gift for your elders. The fate of Shebna is a warning to all of us who dare to lead. God gives leaders their positions. We shouldn’t assume we’re special because of it. In many cases, it’s a test that we often fail. The burden concerning the Valley of Vision. What aileth thee now, that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops,He had access to the house of the precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices. And to the house of the armor and the treasures (ch. 39:2), and disposed of the stores there as he thought fit for the public service.

THE WORD OF THE VALLEY OF SION. What has happened to thee, that now ye are all gone up to the housetops which help you not? This book is a collection of excerpts from different Puritan writers arranged as prayers and organized by category. I have been reading a prayer a day with my devotions and have found it helpful to make their prayers my own. I only wish I knew which Puritans wrote them as the book doesn't tell you. Here are some of my favorite prayers: Probably he carried a golden key upon his shoulder as a badge of his office or had one embroidered upon his cloak or robe, to which this alludes. Being over the house, and having the key delivered to him, as the seals are to the lord-keeper, he shall open and none shall shut, shut and none shall open. The Valley of Vision was not a runaway success when it first came out: it sold less than 20,000 copies in the US by the time of Bennett’s death in 1994. Since then, it has gone on to sell over 337,000 copies worldwide ( statistics from 2013). Oracle on the Valley of Vision: What is the matter with you now, that you have gone up, all of you, to the housetops,

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The preface’s description of the collection’s purpose: “The prayers should therefore be used as aspiration units, the several parts of which could become springboards for the individual’s own prayer subjects.” This is a message about the Valley of Vision. What is happening? Why are all the people of the city celebrating on the roofs of the houses?