Prayer CXLVII

Lift us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to that happy sunlit height where we shall always feel the warm beams of Thy love. And whatever in our own hearts, or in our own circumstances, or in the mysteries of life, may seem to contradict our faith, may we be of those who know and believe the love that God hath to us.

Lord! we need little else if only we can hold fast by that conviction. And yet Thou knowest how foolishly and way wardly we have cast away the pearl of great price, and how we have been contented to slake our thirst at broken cisterns, and to live by the sweetness of limited and transient laws.

Help us, O Lord, we pray Thee, whatever else fills our hearts, to love them in God and God in them. And do Thou strengthen us, we beseech Thee, that our days may all be passed under the influence of that mighty constraining and inspiring power. May we be the children of love, and walk in it; and not only with heart and soul and strength and mind turn its beams upwards to Thee, but outwards upon men. Oh to have more of that victorious power over our own rooted and obstinate self-regard. Oh to know more of the blessedness of those who lose their lives and find them, who cast out self, and so have a better self formed within them. Abide with us, Lord, that day by day we may seek to mould ourselves after the Divine likeness, and dwell in love and dwell in God.

We come to Thee this morning, O Lord, thanking Thee for Thy great mercies to us; and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst draw near us now, and bless us as we worship here before Thee. We would cast ourselves, O Lord, on Thy faithful promises. We know that Thou art ready to come near to us, in the fulness of Thy grace, and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us to put away everything that may come between us and the rich flow of Thy Spirit’s influence; and do Thou help us to hear and to speak, and make this an hour of true communion with the living God.

Bless each of us, day by day, in all our various occupations and duties. We thank Thee that diverse as these may be, there is one grace that can fit each of us for every task; and one Divine Spirit Who, dwelling with us, can make us more equal to all circumstances. Thou dost send to us changing conditions of joy and sorrow, failure and success, hopes disappointed and hopes fulfilled. And we thank Thee that all the changes mean but one thing, that we may be partakers of Thy holiness. May we be fellow-workers with Thee, and so use the things temporal that not only we finally fail not of the things that are eternal, but that day by day we may apprehend these more clearly, and appropriate them more fully, by our right use of the changing circumstances of our fleeting lives.

Now, O Lord, we desire to commend ourselves to Thy gracious care. We cast ourselves on Thy proraises; we confess our own unfitness and unworthiness; and we beseech Thee that Thy Divine Spirit may Himself come to us this morning, and guide us into all truth.

Hear us, we beseech Thee, and forgive and bless, for our Lord Christ’s sake.