Prayer CXXXIII
O Lord, our merciful Father, Who knowest all our hearts, and seest our desires, and understandest our needs far better than we do. We beseech Thee most chiefly for hearts docile to Thy guidance, and willing to accept Thy will however it manifests itself in our daily providences. Deliver us from the pain and weariness of selfcherished and kindled desires, and teach us more and more to keep our wishes within the limits of Thy purposes, and to covet earnestly the best things, concerning which we are sure that Thou wilt satisfy our desires.
O Lord! we come from many different circumstances and spheres of duty, where Thou dost wisely appoint for us our various forms of service and of trial. May these be so far present to our minds as to make us very earnest in our approach to Thee, and never disturb our communion with Thee in this hallowed hour. May we forget them for a little in order that we may go forth and act in them the more bravely, the more wisely, and the more like our Master.
Help us to bring all our thoughts into the obedience of Christ, and to regulate the smallest of our doings by the greatest of principles. Lead us by Thy counsel, O Lord, and fit us for all Thy will. Help us to use the things temporal as means whereby we may more surely and abundantly possess the things unseen and eternal. Give us, we pray Thee, in the midst of life and its passing circumstances and events, the assured consciousness of Thy presence. O Lord! teach us how to speak a word in Thy Name this morning. Guide us in all our handling of Thy word. Let the message of Jesus Christ and His love be glorified on our lips; and may we hearing receive into honest and good hearts the good seed, cherishing it there that it may bring forth a hundredfold.
We beseech Thee to be very near any of us who may seem to ourselves to have special need of Thy guidance and help. Comfort all that are sad; be the Friend and Companion of all solitary souls; counsel those who are perplexed in purpose, or who are looking back to vanished joys, or forward to anticipated sorrows. Grant that each of us may find Thy grace taking the shape of our momentary necessities, and that the Lord supplies all our need according to His infinite riches.
We commend to Thee our Sovereign, our country, all rulers and persons of authority and influence in this land. Be with all who guide opinion, all teachers in colleges and schools and places of learning, all who wield the power of the pen and the press, all those who shape the counsels of the nations. We pray Thee to bring peace in our time. Lead the peoples into the obedience of Christ, and set up His Kingdom in all the dark places of the earth; and make this land of ours more and more in reality what it has so long been in name, a Christian country.
We pray for Thy blessing as we draw near; forgive our many sins, and bless us through our Lord Jesus Christ.