Prayer CXLI
O Lord, our God and Father, faithful and true, Who hast sealed to us all Thy promises in Jesus Christ, and through Whom, by our own experience, dost permit us to set to our seals that God is true, and to bring our Amen. Help us to be steadfast and firm, and to accept with unfaltering faith the promises and the word that comes to us with Thine own unchangeable truth stamped upon it.
We beseech Thee to draw near to us as we are gathered in Thy presence, and to help us to open heart and mind for the entrance of Thy great gifts, and of Thy great Giver, and Thy Divine Spirit. We beseech Thee that Thou wouldst establish us in Jesus Christ, and anoint us with His anointing, that we too may live as dead to sin, and alive to God. Give us light to shine upon Thy word as we are now gathered. Help us both in hearing and in speaking Thy gracious message; may we all draw near to Thee, and may we all be aware that God is speaking to us. May this service help us to holier living, simpler faith, more Christlike characters. May we all feel that God is ever near to us. May the things unseen cheer us often — though dim to us by our own faults — through the multiplicity of our duties and the greatness of Thy transient benefits to us; and shine out clear before us, and be ever the guiding star of our lives.
Help us, O Lord, that our profit may appear unto all men, by our daily living soberly, righteously, godly, in this present world. May we be of those who plainly declare that they seek a country. May we live in the communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Give us Thy help and blessing in all the variety of our occupations and duties, and according to our different characters and conditions. Help us that we may live in the light of God, and walk in the sunshine of Thy presence, seeing the light in that light, and drawing from the fountain of that light, and drinking from the river of Thy pleasures.
Bless us according to our different necessities; be near any of us that are in any sorrow. Manifest Thyself unto such by those dear Names by which we have been reading of Thee, as the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. Who is able to comfort them that are in any tribulation with His own sweet and sufficing solace.
And now. Lord, we desire to commend ourselves to Thee, thanking Thee for Thy great mercies, beseeching Thee to help us that we may be less unworthy of Thy good gifts which perish with the using, and may more faithfully employ, and so increase, the better gifts which grow by use. Take us now into Thy care; give us Thy blessing and presence in our worship, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake.