Prayer CLVIII
O Lord, our gracious God, Whose life has come down to us filtered through all the little deeds of daily life, and in one great flood of benediction and mercy in Jesus Christ our Lord, we would draw near to Thee now, as becomes us, with glad hearts, putting away from us, by Thy gracious help, anything that might interfere with the completeness of our consecration and the fulness of our acceptance of Thyself. We would rejoice that, however poor and unworthy may be our desires and our thoughts about Thee, Thou art infinitely willing to bend Thyself to our lowness, and even sometimes to shape Thy gifts after our desires, always Thou dost shape them after our needs.
But Thou hast mercifully invited us to command Thee concerning the work of Thy hands. Lord! we thank Thee that we can never better Thy purposes. We bless Thee that our highest wisdom and truest peace lie in conforming ourselves to Thy will, not in forcing ours upon Thee. And we pray Thee to help us whenever we come to Thy Throne, to come in the sureness which Thou dost permit us to cherish, that if we ask anything according to Thy will Thou hearest us. May we never think that that is but a poor charter of liberty. May we always stand firm in the confidence that nothing half so good as Thy will can ever befall us. So teach us day by day to take up the burden, and to face the circumstances which Thy providences appoint, and to find that in submission there is peace, and in ‘keeping Thy commandments there is great reward.’
Help us all, we pray Thee, to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. May our hearts be knit to Him by true faith, by loyal love, by continual obedience and aspiration; and so may the good gifts which are in His hands in such rich abundance flow into our characters and lives in such a measure as we require. We praise Thee for Him, and for all that His Name means to us sinful creatures. We beseech Thee that we may grow in the knowledge of that fulness which is treasured in our Lord Christ, and may growingly make our own, and be enriched in the possession of all the wealth of God that is in Jesus Christ. Thou hast taught us to pray great prayers, and encouraged by Thy teaching we venture to ask what we dare not have dreamt of without it, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; that being rooted and grounded in love we may be able to comprehend the height and breadth and depth and length of Thy love, and be filled with all the fulness of God. Help us to make these our supreme desires for life, and help us in some measure to realise the desire, for Thou hast promised that when Thy children call Thou wilt answer, and whatsoever they are able to receive Thou wilt bestow.
In all the variety of our daily duties and circumstances, guide us, O Lord, defend us from evil, bestow upon us such outward blessings as Thou dost know to be for our highest good. And help us so to handle all Thy providences as that they may indeed be blessings for us. If any of us have come into Thy house with full hearts of thankfulness ’ looking back upon all the way by which the Lord our God has led us,’ accept our praise. If any of us have come with sad hearts, feeling that Thy footsteps are in the sea and Thy paths in the deep waters, help us, we pray Thee, to be sure, too, that Thy way is in the sanctuary and that righteousness and holiness are the foundations of Thy Throne, and in all Thy dealings with us. And may the comforts of Thy sweet presence, and the gracious peace that follows when we can say, ‘Thy will be done,’ be granted to each of us that may have any sorrows which make it hard for sense to acquiesce in Thy providences.
Guide us now, O Lord, as we are gathered together. Help us to meditate upon Thy holy word, and give us some message to speak that may be from Thyself, and may find its way to the very springs of life in each of us, and there work blessing and healing.
And now, Lord, we desire to commend ourselves to Thy gracious care. We pray Thee to be near us and bless us, to forgive and to answer us, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.