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Apr 8, 2023

John Baillie

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There are head people and heart people.  Head people think deeply and analyze thoroughly.  Heart people feel intensely and empathize easily.  Some think with the heads; others lead with their hearts.  It is rare to find people who can put head and heart together.

John Baillie (1886-1960) may be one such person. He was a theology professor at Edinburgh University in Scotland and several seminaries in the States.  He thought deeply about God and wrote big books about theology. He probed profound mysteries about Christ’s teachings and researched the Bible with consummate skill.  Yet he also had a heartfelt connection with God and was devoted to prayer.

While John wrote widely on theological subjects, the book for which he is most remembered is A Diary of Private Prayer. First published in 1936, it remains an enduring Christian devotional with more than a million copies in print.  He arranged his diary as a series of morning and evening prayers for each day of the month.  He believed the best way to learn to pray is by praying.

Today’s prayer is the morning prayer for day 27.  I urge you not to hurry through it.  Take time with its words and let them lead you into conversation with God.  I’m drawn to the last three sentences in his prayer: “Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens.  Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others.  Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens on Thee.”  In a short span, we pray to bear up under our burdens, carry each other’s burdens and give all burdens to God:

Grant, O most gracious God, that I may carry with me through this day                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         the remembrance of the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ my Lord.
For Thy fatherly love shown forth in Jesus Christ Thy well-beloved Son:
For his readiness to suffer for our sakes:
For the redemptive passion that filled his heart: I praise and bless Thy holy name.
For the power of his cross in the history of the world since He came:
For all who have taken up their own crosses and have followed him:
For the noble army of martyrs and for all who are willing to die that others may live:
For all suffering freely chosen for noble ends, for pain bravely endured, for temporal sorrows
that have been used for the building up of eternal joys: I praise and bless Thy holy name.

O Lord my God, who dwellest in pure and blessed serenity beyond the reach of mortal pain,
yet looks down in unspeakable love and tenderness upon the sorrows of earth,
give me grace, I beseech Thee,
to understand the meaning of such afflictions and disappointments as I myself am called upon to endure.
Deliver me from all fretfulness.
Let me be wise to draw from every dispensation of Thy providence the lesson Thou art minded to teach me.
Give me a stout heart to bear my own burdens.
Give me a willing heart to bear the burdens of others.
Give me a believing heart to cast all burdens upon Thee.
Glory be to Thee, O Father, and to Thee, O Christ,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       and to Thee, O Holy Spirit, forever and ever.  Amen.

 

Rev. Dr. Peter James served 42 years as the senior of Vienna Presbyterian Church in Vienna, VA — 21 years in the 20th century and 21 years in the 21st century. He retired in 2021 and now serves as Pastor-in-Residence at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Even as a pastor, prayer came slowly to Pete. Read Pete’s story.