Prayer XLII
O Lord our God, Who knowest our hearts, and understandest our needs better than we do, help us, we beseech Thee, to hallow all our desires by submission to Thy holy will. And in regard of all things here below, and the uncertain and perishable good that we need and wish, to breathe our desires to Thee, and to say, ‘Nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done.’ We thank Thee for the peace that comes to us when we thus cease from our own works, and delight in what Thou dost appoint and command. We bless thee for all the rest of God which Thou dost give in Thy mercy to them that live by Thee and near Thee. And we pray that we may never be so engrossed with the things that are seen and temporal, and may never so follow after them, as to lose our hold upon Thyself. Help us, day by day, to take what Thou dost give; to do what Thou dost command; to learn both how to be abased and how to be exalted, both how to abound and how to suffer need. May we, in whatsoever state we are, therein and therewith be content. And may our supreme desires ever be turned towards the perfect and eternal good which Thou dost freely give to all them that ask.
Help us, we pray Thee, day by day, in our tasks and difficulties, in our joys and sorrows. May we discern Thy will in all things, and may all things to us be sacred as the symbols of Thine own love of which they are the tokens and the results. Help us, we pray Thee, strenuously to labour to fulfil all our Father’s commandments, and to receive all our Father’s blessings. Guide us by Thy counsel, defend us by Thy present encompassing grace, put a well-spring of life within our hearts that may ever be rising up into life everlasting. Keep us in all our ways; in so far as Thou knowest it to be for our good accomplish our desires and fulfil our petitions. But above all teach us to count that Thou art our Portion and our Strength, and that having Thee we are rich.
Help us to draw near to Thee, from whatever circumstances we come. May we find in Thy house and in Thy worship all that we need. Thou givest to us the matter of a day in its day. Give us this day what this day requires. May Thy truth enter into our hearts and minds, and fill our lives with peace and light.
Hear us in our prayers for one another, for all Thy servants who, in various lands and ways, are seeking to spread the various manifold blessings of Thy love. Help all thy people to live as becometh the gospel. Bless all those who in this land or elsewhere are in positions to influence opinion and action. Let Thy Kingdom come. May the Name of Jesus Christ be magnified, and the Cross be more and more the throne from which He rules the earth.
Hear us, we beseech Thee, in our prayer; forgive our many sins, and grant us Thy gracious help and presence now, for our Saviour Jesus Christ’s sake.