Prayer CXIII
O Lord, our merciful Father, Thou seest our hearts and knowest how often they betray us, and how hard we find it to unite our hearts in the single-eyed fear and service of Thyself. So many rivals seek to draw us away, and there is so much in us that yields to the drawing. But we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us in all the relations to, and administration of, the things here on earth to use them in Thy service, to make them not antagonists to Thee, but revealers of Thee, and helpers towards Thee. May all life speak to us of God, and all duty be stamped with His commandment, and done by His help. May all possessions, inward or outward, all capacities, facilities, opportunities, resources, all acquirements and attainments, all that we are, and all that we have, be more completely yielded up unto Him from Whom all has come. We pray Thee to accept, and by accepting enrich, our poverty, and to make us more and more possessors of Thyself, in the fullness which is possible to us whilst we are here.
O Lord! we pray Thee to lead us day by day along that road of daily duty. May it not be a lonely one.
It is Thy providence that determines whether it shall be a crooked one or a straight one, abounding in rough places or smooth and plain. We dare not make petitions of our desires in that respect, but we beseech Thee that upon that highway no ravenous beast may come up, nor any enemies lurk that shall mar and rob us; but may He Who goeth before us be with us there, and may our road never be a solitary one, because the Master is with us, and the Breaker and the Pathfinder has gone up before us.
We pray Thee to bless us day by day. We pray Thee to bless us now, to take away all deadness and all coldness from our hearts and minds, and to help us in this hour of apparent worship, that the communion between us and Thee may be real and living, and that we may go hence in some measure strengthened and helped for Thy holy will and for our day’s service.
Whilst we thank Thee for Thy mercies we would pray Thee to be near all who are in any kind of sorrow or trouble. Some amongst us have brought into Thy house very heavy hearts, perplexed and saddened some by difficulties, sorrows, and losses. We beseech Thee that whatever tribulations Thou mayest be exercising Thy children with, it may afterward yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness; and may none of us waste our sorrows, and not find them bringing us nearer to Thee, and making Thee more precious to us.
We pray Thee to bless all Thy people who in any fashion are trying to do Thy will in the world to make known Thy great Name. Bless all teachers and preachers, all guides and leaders of thought and influence in this and other lands; and grant that the travail of soul by which many are exercised may end in bringing many nearer to the one Light of all our seeing, and may scatter the darkness that prevails. Rule Thou, O Lord, amidst the perturbations of the nations and the shocks of change. And grant, we beseech Thee, that whatsoever things may be shaken and removed, the established Kingdom may be more manifest, more widely spread, more mightily operative on the hearts of individuals, and on the counsels of the kingdoms.
We pray Thee to hear us, to bless and accept, and to forgive all our sins, for our Saviour Jesus Christ’s sake.