For many years I have enjoyed reading the old puritan writings. One of the themes that I continue to see each time I read them is their faithful longing for the second coming of Christ. These individuals were always living in the light of eternity and had a burning desire to live each day with the thought that it might be their last.
I believe there are many different reasons the puritans thought this way. One, we know from several statistics, people living in the 17th and 18th centuries died at much younger ages. The brevity of life was a daily meditation for them. Secondly, these faithful men and women were not caught up in the distractions we find ourselves to be surrounded by today. We are constantly bombarded with the latest technology as well as what is going on in the media. At times, it is almost impossible to escape from the chaos surrounding us. They were content with the simplicity of life. Many of them spent their time in prayer or reading the scripture by candlelight. We could learn a few wise lessons from these puritans.
One of my favorite puritan works is called, "The Valley of Vision." This is a booked comprised of several puritan prayers that are filled with many deep expressions towards God.
Below is a verse written from the prayer entitled "Man's Great End."
"O may I never fall into the tempers and vanities, the sensuality and folly of the present world! It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast empty nothingness; Time is a moment, a vapour, and all its enjoyments are empty bubbles, fleeting blasts of wind, from which nothing satisfactory can be derived; Give me grace always to keep in covenant with thee, and to reject a delusion of a great name here or hereafter, together with all sinful pleasures or profits. Help me to know that there can be no true happiness, no fulfilling of thy purpose for me, apart from a life lived in and for the Son of thy love."Even among the craziness of this life, Christians are to be living each day with Psalm 90:12 in mind. "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom."
