John Baillie

Some of you tell me you read these prayers early in the morning. Quick now! Can you recall anything from last night’s slumber? Aside from a few memorable and often bizarre dreams, I can’t account for what goes on in my brain at night. People who study sleep tell us our brains are highly active while we rest at night. Sleep plays a housekeeping role by eliminating toxins that build up in our brains during our waking hours.
The practice of morning and evening prayer is a time-honored Christian tradition. John Baillie (1886-1960) composed a series of morning and evening prayers in his classic devotional A Diary of Private Prayer. The book provides morning and evening prayers for each day of the month, plus two additional prayers for Sunday.
John was someone who thought deeply about God. He devoted his life to teaching theology at several academic institutions in North America and Scotland. Little wonder he described prayer with the words, “Prayer is, after all, thinking towards God.” His prayers were intended for private use rather than public worship, hence his extensive use of first-person singular. Baillie was also a relentless self-critic, under no illusion about the human tendency toward pride and self-promotion. He regarded sleep as an ideal time to entrust ourselves, our entire selves, to God’s care. Since God doesn’t require sleep (see Psalm 121), the Lord will be vigilant on our behalf all night long. Here’s a Psalm to take to bed with you, “In peace, I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Ps. 4.8). I invite you to take John’s evening prayer to bed with you: