This Sunday we'll be celebrating Communion. And I want to encourage you to prepare now. For some of you that means getting your elements in order --> finding something like wine or grape juice and bread so you can take the Lord's Supper online. But for all of us this means getting our hearts in order. If you were here this past Sunday you prayed through this preparation. 

What I do is read through Psalm 51 and think through this - here's a selection of some old prayers (a few hundred years old) from a book called Valley of Vision. I think that there's something rich gained from people who sat longer with thoughts and words than most of us do. 

Here is a prayer:

THE DEEPS

LORD JESUS,

Give me a deeper repentance,

    a horror of sin,

    a dread of its approach;

Help me chastely to flee it,

    and jealously to resolve that my heart shall be thine alone.

Give me a deeper trust,

    that I may lose myself to find myself in thee,

        the ground of my rest,

        the spring of my being.

Give me a deeper knowledge of thyself as Saviour, Master, Lord, and King.

Give me deeper power in private prayer,

    more sweetness in thy Word,

    more steadfast grip on its truth.

Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought, action, and let me not seek moral virtue apart from thee.

Plough deep in me, great Lord, heavenly Husbandman,

    that my being may be a tilled field,

    the roots of grace spreading far and wide,

        until thou alone art seen in me,

        thy beauty golden like summer harvest,

        thy fruitfulness as autumn plenty.

I have no Master but thee,

    no law but thy will,

    no delight but thyself,

    no wealth but that thou givest,

    no good but that thou blessest,

    no peace but that thou bestowest.

I am nothing but that thou makest me,

I have nothing but that I receive from thee,

I can be nothing but that grace adorns me.

Quarry me deep, dear Lord,

    and then fill me to overflowing with living water.