Prayer CXL

O Lord, our merciful Father, the Rock of Ages that cannot move, we bless Thee for that constancy of love which is not easily provoked nor soon angry, which beareth all things, and for the worst of us hopeth all things. And we beseech Thee that we, when we are most conscious of our own weakness and ill-desert, may be most confident of Thy grace and pardoning mercy, and quickening and sustaining power.

So help us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to come to Thee, driven by our own sense of need, and drawn by Thy great revelation of Thy love and care, which Thou hast given to us in all the incidents of our daily lives, in the depths of our own hearts, and most of all in the message of Thy dear Son Thou hast delivered our souls from death, our eyes from tears; Thou hast always been ready to deliver our feet from falling, and if we have fallen it is because we have put away from ourselves the help that would have kept us standing.

But we bless Thee that Thou hast revealed Thyself to us as the God that upholdeth all those that are fallen, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. And we come to Thee now to ask Thee that Thou wouldst cleanse our hearts, wouldst deliver us from the power of evils done, wouldst set us free from the entail of past sin, wouldst strengthen us in present and in future temptation, and set our feet upon a rock, O

Lord, and establish our goings. In Thee, O Lord, is the Refuge from all our fears, the Strength for all our weakness, the Power that will conquer in all conflicts. O help us, we pray Thee, to open our hearts for the entrance of Thy grace, and come in and fill the empty room, and make us strong in the strength of Jesus Christ.

Let the blessing of the Lord our God be upon us now, and be felt to be with us. May we be aware of a Presence mightier and more than that of one another. May we realise in our faithful and quiet hearts that where two or three are gathered in Christ’s Name He is ever in the midst. May we fulfil the conditions, and then He will fulfil His promise.

We thank Thee, O Lord, for all Thy loving-kindness to us. ‘Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge,’ of a loving Father’s continual guiding and giving hand. And we praise Thee for all the way by which Thou hast led us. If any of us find it hard to say ’ all the way,’ do Thou strengthen us to understand that great and blessed thought ‘He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness.’ And help us each, by whatever providences we may be, or may have been exercised, to see clearly the purpose of it all, and to realise in our own experience that all works together for our good.

Accept us as we come to Thee; help us to take the cup of salvation, to make our own all the blessings both of Thy providence and of Thy grace, which Thou dost hold out for our acceptance; and in taking of it may we not forget the Giver, but turn every cup of gladness or of sorrow into a cup of blessing because we name over it the Name of the Lord. Forgive, accept, and answer, for the Lord Christ’s sake.