In The Valley of Vision, there is a prayer entitled “Assurance.” It begins in an explosion of praise language:

Almighty God,
I am loved with everlasting love,
clothed in eternal righteousness,
my peace flowing like a river,
my comforts many and large,
my joy and triumph unutterable,
my soul lively with a knowledge of salvation,
my sense of justification unclouded.

These stream-of-consciousness doxologies are common in most prayer anthologies. They are certainly prevalent in The Valley of Vision. But at this point, the pray-er pauses to make a startling confession:

I have scarce anything to pray for…

This stopped me in my tracks when I read it this morning.

After listing all the Lord has bestowed upon him — from peace flowing like a river to the knowledge of salvation; from an unclouded sense of justification to robes of eternal righteousness — a moment of recognition washes over the one in prayer.

I have scarce anything to pray for…

Imagine being so utterly secure in your relationship with God, resting so securely in the bounty of His promises, that you scarcely know what to pray about.

“Lord, I don’t even know what I ought to ask for because You have already done so much for me! As Jesus said from the cross, ‘It is finished.’ You have accomplished all that was needed to secure my salvation and I now rest in the finished work of the Son! As You say, You have already given us everything pertaining to life and godliness in Christ (2 Pet. 1:3). What more can be done? You have already given me every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms (Eph. 1:3). I cannot even think of asking for more! I simply want to praise You for what You have already done, Lord!”

The next time I bring my laundry list of requests to the Lord in prayer, I would do well to recognize what my brother confesses here. Lord, I praise you for what You have already done!

I want to be this secure in my relationship with God, that I scarcely have anything to pray about!