thoughts and ruminations while in exile (1 Pet. 2:11)

For those of you who don't already have a copy, I strongly recommend that you buy The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions. This book contains some of the most beautiful and thought-provoking prayers I have ever read. In reading these prayers, you come face to face with the devotional fervor expressed in the life of the Puritans. The Puritans are known for their strong desires to live a godly life. This is witnessed in their extreme zeal to destroy every residual sin that is still present in their lives, as well as there acute sense that all things must be done to the glory of God. Many today make fun of the Puritans, saying that they went over board in their walk with God. Could it be that they were not over-zealous but rather it only seems that way to us because we've gone so far in the other direction? Just a thought . . .
Here is a prayer I read today that really caused my heart to swell with praise and joy. As the title of the blog says, the prayer is entitled "Man's Great End":

Lord of all being, There is one thing that deserves my greatest care, that calls forth my ardent desires. That is, that I may answer the great end for which I am made--to glorify you who has given me being, and to do all the good I can for my fellow men; Verily life is not worth having if it be not improved for this noble purpose. Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind! Most men seem to live for themselves, without much or any regard for your glory, or for the good of others; They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue the riches, honors, pleasures of this life, as if they supposed that wealth, greatness, merriment, could make their immortal souls happy; But, alas, what false delusive dreams are these! And how miserable ere long will those be that sleep in them, for all our happiness consists in loving you, and being holy as you are holy.
O may I never fall into the tempers and vanities, that sensuality and folly of the present world! It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast empty nothingness; Time is a moment, a vapor, 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 you, and to reject as delusion a great name here or hereafter, together with all sinful pleasures or profits. Help me to know continually that there can be no true happiness, no fulfilling of your purposes for me, apart from a life lived in and for the Son of your love.