Prayer CXXXVI
O Lord, Whose last best name is Love, we come to Thee in the strength of that Name, and laying hold on Him in Whom Thou hast spoken it for ever to all souls Thy gentleness hath made us great. And we thank Thee for all which Thou hast lavished upon us, both of the gifts that perish with the using and are renewed day by day, and of the better gift which grows as used, and is new every morning.
We bless Thee for that Saviour Who does not break the bruised reed, and for all His healing and restoring power. We bless Thee for Him Who does not quench the smoking flax, for all His quickening and enkindling power. And we pray that our weaknesses, our wounds in character and nature, may indeed be bound up; and that our faint and feeble sparks of anything better may be cherished into a bright flame that shall illuminate our own lives, and bear witness of the uncreated Light to many around us.
We draw near to Thee now, O Lord, with lowly thanksgiving for all Thy great benefits, and pray for enlightened eyes and retentive memories and grateful hearts for the smallest of Thy gifts; for the smallest gift does mean, when bestowed upon us, the most wondrous grace. We thank Thee for Thy daily benefits; for all the gifts of Thy hand, of Thy providence; for Thy commandments; for the path of duty which Thou dost mark out for us; and for all the helps so abundantly given, and yet more abundantly offered, to run in the way of Thy commandments with enlarged hearts and nimble feet. And whilst we think of all Thy daily benefits, we would ask Thee that Thou wouldst help us more faithfully, and with more continuous and conscious reference to Thee, and meet all our circumstances and undertake all our duties, and realise ever, in the midst of conflict and toil, ’ the rest that remaineth,’ and the peace that is granted to the people of God.
Go with us day by day, in all the variety of our callings, and according to the diversity of our temptations and circumstances. By means of these changing and fleeting events may we be led to a fuller possession of the unchanging and eternal good, the only good for our spirits. Cleanse our hearts from all their evil, cast out from our minds all our errors and delusions, reveal more clearly the points in which we are defective and the things which we think wrong, and do wrong; and help us to be honest with ourselves, and being our own most rigid judges, to be ready to pluck out the right eye if we know that it offends, and to cast aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us. And may our meditations this morning, and our unspoken resolves, the glimpses of a better light into the true realities which we may have here, work within us lasting betterment.
Draw near now, O Lord; speak to us that we may speak to one another; and may the words of our mouths, and the meditations of our hearts, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer.