As I write this, I am asking the Lord to give words, things to say that will somehow bring a blessing, a challenge, an insight, or simply a word of encouragement. A friend recently told me of a book about prayer that has challenged him: Communion with God, by John Owen, one of the more well-known Puritan authors of the seventeenth century. He added, “I like the Banner of Truth Puritan Paperback edited version.” Obviously, it is a book he has read more than once, in different versions (probably with updated language from “ye olde English.”) On his recommendation, I plan to buy it and read it.

Puritan, you say—that repressed group that denies the enjoyment of life, thinks sex is only for procreation and not pleasure, or hunts witches they can burn at the Salem stake? How often do we hear something like this: “Oh, don’t be so puritanical!” However, Dr. J. I. Packer, the renowned evangelical theologian of the twentieth century and an avid reader of the Puritan writings, observes:

Horse racing is said to be the sport of kings. The sport of slinging mud has, however, a wider following. Pillorying the Puritans, in particular, has long been a popular pastime both sides of the Atlantic, and most people’s image of Puritanism still has on it much disfiguring dirt that needs to be scraped off.

So, what could those Puritans offer us in the twenty-first century who think we have discovered a newer, better, more exciting way to worship God? Packer goes on:

The answer, in one word, is maturity. Maturity is a compound of wisdom, goodwill, resilience, and creativity. The Puritans exemplified maturity; we don’t. We are spiritual dwarfs. A much-traveled leader, a native American (be it said), has declared that he finds North American Protestantism, man-centered, manipulative, success-oriented, self-indulgent and sentimental, as it blatantly is, to be 3,000 miles wide and half an inch deep. The Puritans, by contrast, as a body were giants. They were great souls serving a great God. In them clear-headed passion and warm-hearted compassion combined. Visionary and practical, idealistic and realistic too, goal-oriented and methodical, they were great believers, great hopers, great doers, and great sufferers.*

As a reform movement, the Puritans had much experience in bucking the tide of worldliness that had spread through the church during the later Renaissance (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) in Europe. Popular and scholarly thought today holds that time period in high regard for reviving the interest in ideas and achievements of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds. Renewed enthusiasm for the intellect and reason brought the “Enlightenment” period of the later seventeenth century and on into the eighteenth. But along with advancements in the arts and humanities came a degradation in adherence to biblical truth and morality.

The Puritans get their name from their desire to purify the Church of England of its Roman Catholic tendencies. That name stuck but was soon used satirically to mock them. Thinking that the English church did not fully reform and wasn’t protestant enough, they strove for purity in doctrine and in life. And they had some great, timeless things to say about life in the spiritual realm.

That brings us around to John Owen and prayer. He wrote much on that subject that is timeless. After all, God is timeless, so we can learn much from those whose writings are not dated in their content but universal in their truth. So, just thinking about my friend’s suggestion as I began to write this blog turned me to prayer, asking the Lord what to write. May your heart and mind be turned to prayer as well, as you endeavor to grow deeper in your communion with God in even the mundane things and times of life. May I suggest that after reading this, you have a conversation with the Lord about the very next thing you are planning to do.

*https://www.apuritansmind.com/the-puritan-era/why-we-need-the-puritans-by-dr-j-i-packer/