The following  prayer was first offered back in the   1700′s.  It is from the largely forgotten deposit of the Puritan Movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  These people knew God and they certainly knew how to pray.  We can learn a lot from them. They are written in old english.  I have updated  a few outdated words and changed the Thee’s and Thou’s to make it more 2011.  However, they still have the feel of that era.   This prayer, titled ’Morning Needs’,  along with many others, can be found in a book titled “The Valley of Vision”, by Arthur Bennett.

O God the author of all good,
I come to You for the grace another day will require
                  for its duties and events.
       I step out into a wicked world;
       I carry with me an evil heart.
       I know that without You I can do nothing,
                      that everything with which I shall be concerned,
                                       however harmless in itself,
                      may prove an occasion of sin or folly,
                      unless I am kept by Your power.
Hold me up and I shall be safe.

Preserve my understanding from subtle error, 
                   my heart from the love of idols,
                   my character from the stain of vice,
                   my mouth from every form of evil.
May I engage in nothing in which I cannot ask Your blessing,
                  and in which I cannot invite Your inspection.

Prosper me in all lawful undertakings, 
             or prepare me for disappointments.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
             Feed me with food convenient for me,
                          lest I be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?”
                          or be poor, and steal, and take Your name in vain.
                 May every creature be made good to me by prayer and Your will.

Teach me how to use the world and not abuse it, 
              to improve my talents,
              to redeem my time,
              to walk in wisdom toward those without,
                    and in kindness to those within,
             to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians.

And to You be the glory.