Our Father - praying with the church

Sometimes I find it very helpful to pray what other Christians have already prayed. Someone else originally said the words, but I take them in my own mouth and my heart embraces them. Maybe a good analogy is wedding vows. Gail and I thought it would be most meaningful if we wrote our own vows, but as we were looking at examples we found some that said exactly what we wanted to say to each other. The fact that we weren't the original authors didn't diminish the depth of the promise at all.
This prayer is from The Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. Although it is a convert's first prayer, it is one that even seasoned Christians would do well to pray daily.

“A Convert’s First Prayer” 

My Father,

I could never have sought my happiness

      in thy love,

   unless thou had’st first loved me.

Thy Spirit has encouraged me by grace

      to seek thee,

   has made known to me

     thy reconciliation in Jesus,

   has taught me to believe it,

   has helped me to take thee for my God

     and portion.

May he grant me to grow in the knowledge

     and experience of thy love,

   and walk in it all the way to glory.

Blessed for ever be thy fatherly affection,

   which chose me to be one of thy children

   by faith in Jesus:

I thank thee for giving me the desire to live

    as such.

In Jesus, my brother, I have my new birth,

   every restraining power,

   every renewing grace.

It is by thy Spirit I call thee Father,

   believe in thee, love thee;

Strengthen me inwardly for every purpose

   of my Christian life;

Let the Spirit continually reveal to me my  

      interest in Christ,

   and open to me the riches of thy love in him;

May he abide in me that I may know my union

   with Jesus,

   and enter into constant fellowship with him;

By thy Spirit may I daily live to thee,

   rejoice in thy love,

   find it the same to me as to thy Son,

   and become rooted and grounded in it

     as a house on rock;

I know but little –

   increase my knowledge of thy love in Jesus,

   keep me pressing forward for clearer

      discoveries of it,

   so that I may find its eternal fullness;

Magnify thy love to me according to its greatness,

   and not according to my deserts or prayers,

   and whatever increase thou givest,

   let it draw out greater love to thee.