Prayer CVI
O Lord our Lord, help us, we beseech Thee, to make Thee ours, and to make ourselves Thine. We thank Thee that like as a Father pitieth His children Thou pitiest. Knowing our frame, and looking upon us with the loving eye of a faithful Creator, Thou wilt satisfy the souls whom Thou hast made to need Thee. Thou hearest the ravens when they cry, and Thou wilt answer us. Give us that which our empty souls need, that which our lonely lives require, that which our seeking groping hearts do often feel after, and mistakenly think that we have found in Thy creatures. Give us Thyself that we may be strong, and that it may be well with us, and that we may be pure and right, and like Thee.
We bless Thee that Thou dost not disdain to enter the narrow room of our hearts. We thank Thee that Thou canst tread the path thither, and be nearer us than all loves, and closer to us than some parts of ourselves, and more really with us than our flesh and blood is. We thank Thee for the union possible between us and Thee, and we pray Thee to take out of our hearts and characters every separating film, everything that comes between us and God.
O Lord! we draw near to Thee this morning with lowly thanksgiving for all Thy great mercies; but we pray, too, that our hearts and minds may never be so occupied with the sweetness of these, or with the bitterness of our sorrows, as that either the one or the other may come between us and Thee. Help us to use the things seen and temporal as media by which we can draw near to Thee, not as barriers by which we shut Thee out from ourselves.
We confess our many sins in this respect, and how hard it has been for us, and is, day by day, to keep God in our hearts and minds whilst our hands and thoughts are fully occupied with the duties which God gives us. But we pray Thee that Thou wouldst help us day by day to renew our hold on Thee, and may we have quiet and secret moments when we refresh our spirits, and tighten our grasp of the great verities and of the great God, and so be able to go out into life and not lose our hold of either.
We pray Thee to give us Thy gracious help and presence, without which our service here is but as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. We pray Thee to make our approach to Thee more real, very sincere, and very simple. May we pass beyond forms to our Father, and receive from Him forgiveness of sins, help in worship, lifting away of every burden; and drawing near with true hearts and full assurance of faith may we realise what we desire, and feel that we have with us our Father-God. We pray Thee to forgive our sins, and accept our petitions, through Jesus Christ our Lord.