Be Thou My Vision

Jonny Gibson’s new liturgical guide to personal or family worship is a gem! Evangelicals need enrichment of the ‘daily quiet time,’ which has traditionally been little more than Bible study and intercessory prayer. While many have turned to a variety of traditions that are less than gospel- or word-centered, in Be Thou My Vision Jonny connects us to the Reformation’s historic forms of prayer and confession, catechesis, and the lectio continua reading of Scripture. It’s a feast, and while providing only thirty-one days of different prayers, I believe the book can be profitably used all year, and year after year. Get it and use it!

Jonny has gifted us with a project not only of theological and historical retrieval but also, more deeply, retrieval of our own hearts, often wayward and wandering, distracted and distressed. This simple but rich liturgy takes our hearts and leads them back to the Lord with pastoral care and theological integrity. A deeply edifying and useful guide.

We believers sometimes stumble our way through the steps of spiritual devotion, especially in private or family worship. This liturgy for daily worship lets us hold the well-tested handrails of faithful worshipers, carved out deeply and well to help us on. Creeds, prayers, catechisms, hymns, and, most of all, God’s breathed-out word lead us profitably and beautifully to worship the triune God in spirit and in truth. I look forward to using and sharing this book.

To use the rich traditions of biblical worship such as prayers, confessions of faith, catechisms, Scripture readings, praise, and more conveys a remarkable freshness in the context of personal worship. Gibson guides you through each of these elements in a thirty-one-day cycle, and provides a familiar one-year Bible-reading plan. With some adjustments it can also serve as a family worship resource. All in all, Be Thou My Vision is perhaps the best, and certainly the most thorough and meaty, daily devotional guide I’ve ever read.

What if you took thirty-one days and enveloped your Bible reading in a cocoon of riches? Make no mistake—this book is not a replacement for the living and active word of God. But how might it deepen and enliven your morning meditation to lead into it and out of it by drawing on centuries of wisdom? Both the sequence and the carefully crafted prayers and creeds will freshly inform your mind and stir your heart. This is not a book of shortcuts for those looking to abbreviate their time in God’s word. These daily liturgies invite us to give more for a season and hold out the promise of great reward. How might God renovate your soul in these thirty-one days?

When it comes to daily personal worship, Christians are finding it harder to stay disciplined in today’s swipe-scroll-click-search-tap culture. Many have lost the art of staying focused. In the meantime, our souls cry out for authentic worship that lasts more than two minutes. It’s why the book you hold in your hands is so necessary. I love this book! Having been raised in the Reformed Episcopal church, I enjoy the rhythms of liturgical adoration of God in all its depth, discipline, and exaltation of the word. Be Thou My Vision will educate you in personal worship that is truly worthy of our great God. I highly recommend this important guide for your personal devotions.

Jonny Gibson is helping a new generation of Christian believers and pastors find language and structure that will enrich their daily devotional life and weekly worship services. I personally find Be Thou My Vision both helpful and inspiring, and warmly commend it to all.”

What a go-to source this volume will be for both individual devotion and family worship, with its carefully arranged daily liturgy featuring select Scripture readings, prayers culled from church history, luminous sections of the creeds and confessions, plus the ringing lyrics of sacred hymnody. Those who take the time for an appropriation of the measured riches and disciplines of this book will experience an intensification of worship that will fill their existence. We believe that Be Thou My Vision will grace today’s church and generations to come!

A daily ‘time with the Lord’ has become a rarity in the lives of many Christians. This not only robs us of the good things that God has provided for the strengthening, encouragement, and equipping of his people, but it also dishonors the Lord who loved us and gave himself for us. Gibson has mined the devotional treasures of twenty centuries of Christian prayer to produce a structured and easy-to-use guide to thirty-one days of worship involving confession and praise, Scripture readings and creeds, catechism, and intercession. Be Thou My Vision will certainly give breadth and depth to your daily time with the Lord. I warmly welcome it.