Prayer CXLVI
Help us, we pray Thee, O Lord! and draw our hearts to Thyself by the outgoing of Thy own heart to us. May we each feel the magnetism of Thy manifested love in Christ our Lord.
We come to Thee this morning with many reasons for praise, and we thank Thee that we can gather them all into one when we bring thanks to God for His unspeakable gift. We bless Thee for Him in Whom are treasured all the wealth of wisdom and knowledge, in Whom Thou hast tabernacled among us, bringing grace and truth to us all, if we will have them.
We bless Thee for that Lord, the channel and medium of every common gift, and for all the mercies which speak of Thy greater love, and minister to our greater and eternal blessedness.
O Lord! we come to Thee but too conscious of our poor answers to Thy great love; and we feel that whatever else we need, we need pardon not only for the things in which we have gone against Thy holy will, but for the many more in which we have fallen beneath Thy gracious commandments, and have failed to apprehend and make our own Thy gracious gifts. We pray for Thy forgiveness; and that in each heart in Thy presence now there may move that Divine Spirit, all Whose strength-giving work begins by teaching us our own weakness. May that Divine Spirit convince us of sin, and may we welcome the conviction; and then. Lord, do Thou help us to lay firm hold on the righteousness which Thou dost impart to all that seek it where Thou hast stored it, in Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Strengthen us, we pray Thee, by Thy good Spirit too, in this hour of worship, and grant that each of us may feel that it is no vain thing to wait upon the Lord. May we indeed be waiting upon Thee, not only in these outward forms of worship and communion and praise, but in the silence of our own souls. And oh! do Thou help us to a wise forgetfulness and a wise remembrance; that we may forget everything in daily life that may distract our thoughts, or interfere with our devotion; and may remember our own great needs. Thy greater gift, and the way by which even Christ our Lord, our need and Thy gift, may meet.
Be with us, O Lord, in our changing conditions, and when we return again to the ordinary duties of the week, may we bear with us some impulse, some influence, some steadying power, some overcoming might, from our communion with Thee this day. And so the Lord accept and bless, and be near us now, and help us in this hour of worship; and through Thy help now in this hour help us in our daily lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.