Prayer CLV
O Lord, our gracious Father, lift us, we beseech Thee, to that height of peaceful, patient trust in Thee which make it impossible for us to be anxious because we are sure that ’ our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need ’ of these outward things. It is Thy ’ good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.’ Thou dost give us the greater, Thou wilt not withhold the less. Thou hast given us that supreme end. Thou wilt not forget to provide the things that are needful on the road to it. We would cast ourselves on Thy gracious care. We know that Thou dost love us. We believe in Thy wise and rich providences, and we pray that Thou wouldst help us to interpret all the transitions, the trials, the temptations, the sorrows, and the agonies of this life in the light of that great faith that Thou doest all things, and that all things which Thou doest are well.
We thank Thee that we can look upon Thee as ’ the Father of Lights, from Whom cometh every good and every perfect gift.’ And since we know that ’ there is no variableness,’ nothing but what is good and perfect can come from Thy hands to Thy children. Bow our spirits, and perfect them, and enlighten us that with a single eye we may look upon Thy dealings with us, and upon all things here below, and so walk ever in the light of those who understand the way by which the Lord their God has led them.
We beseech Thee for Thy patience, for Thy peace, for the light of Thy love to shine into our hearts, for Thy holy Spirit to elevate and rectify our thoughts of what is good for us, and our desires after Thee, that we may seek the best things first, the ‘Kingdom of God and His righteousness,’ and be content to regard these objects — which men who have not Thee to look up to, look upon as the essentials and the most blessed things — as additions to that which is ’ the one thing needful.’
We praise and bless Thy Name that Thou dost permit Thy children to come to Thee and hold fellowship with Thee. We speak to Thee, and we believe that Thou dost speak to us. We thank Thee for the voices in Thy word, and in Thy providences in our hearts. We thank Thee most for the great Voice in which the whole of that which, at sundry times and in divers manners, has been spoken through the ages, is spoken to us in Thy Son. May we learn all the Name which is in Him, and may we come more and more into realising the communion with Thyself which shall carry us on through all the duties, and it may be the difficulties and the sorrows of our daily lives, and shall make us more than conquerors in Him that loves us.
We pray Thee to be with us in our gathering this evening, to be near all our hearts and minds, and to draw us into the secret place of the Most High, that we may behold more clearly than we often do, and aspire more earnestly after, the things that are at Thy right hand; and Thyself Who art even more than they. We pray for Thy teaching, for Thy illumination to shine into our hearts and upon Thy word; and we ask Thee to give us some word in season that may come to all our minds and hearts as the message from God that we need.
We bless Thee for all that Thou hast ministered to many hearts in past days and years here in these gatherings. Grant, O Lord, that the light of Thy love may shine more brightly amongst us in our Christian experience, and in our daily lives may we more manifestly copy Thine. May Thy servants gathered here in the name of Jesus Christ really be knit together in His word and power, and may we be able to live in the world adorning the teaching in all things.
Be near all in sorrow, all who have special cares and burdens to bear, comfort all sad hearts, companion all lonely ones, enlighten all that are darkened. Oh counsel the perplexed, be strength to the weak; be grace according to our need to each of us.
O Lord, hear us in our prayers, forgive our many sins, in Thy great mercy and love be present with us as we worship here before Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.