Prayer L
O Lord! help us to be holy as the Father in Heaven is holy; and to that end may we all, by humble faith an loyal love and true communion with Thee, submit ourselves to the cleansing which Thou hast stored for the whole world in the Lamb of God. We pray Thee to keep us near Thyself, in submission, in obedience. May our thoughts not be absorbed by other things, to the exclusion of the greatest thing. May we all get the wisdom which shall bring all our works to Thee, and offering up the trivialities of daily life on the great altar may we have the Giver and the gift, the offering and the offerer hallowed and magnified.
O Lord, our different characters, and circumstances, and past history, and present duties and prospects, are all so diverse that it is hard for one voice to express all our needs. But Thou knowest them, and we pray that we, too, may know them more wisely than we sometimes are apt to apprehend them. We bless Thee that we do know that Thou art all-sufficient. May the knowledge have more influence on our daily lives, and shape these more thoroughly than it has done in the past. And help us that we may find a help to everything that is good, and that whatsoever in us is weak and wrong may be subdued, and whatever is feebly right may be strengthened and confirmed and deepened.
And grant that our religion may not only be a thing of Sundays, and chapels, and of spoken prayers, but a power that rules all our lives, and is manifest to men as the motive of all our conduct.
Bless each of us in all our duties. Be present in all sick-chambers, and give patience in bitter weakness and pain and weariness, and the ebbing away of strength. We pray that Thou wouldst give wisdom and tender hands and tender hearts to all that watch by sick-beds; and that Thou wouldst grant that whatsoever afflictions any of us, or of those dear to us, may now be exercised by, there may be sent more than sufficient weight of consolation and of power. Grant that though the outward man perishes the inward man may be renewed day by day.
O Lord, guide our thoughts, and help us to speak and to hear Thy truth, and to receive it. Guide our actions when we go hence, and help us to live Thy truth, and be near each of us day by day.
We commend to Thee ourselves, and all whom we love; all good people who are trying to do Thy will. We pray that Thou wouldst speedily put an end to war, and that Thou wouldst subdue and hold in check evil passions that may hinder the coming of peace. And we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst diffuse throughout the world the gracious principles and the mighty powers of that Kingdom which is righteousness and peace and joy; and that Jesus Christ may, not in name only but in reality, be the Lord of the nations of the earth. May His professing followers learn to hate war, to hang the trumpet in the hall, and learn war no more. Hear us; speak through us and to us, and grant us Thy blessing, and give us the hearing ear, for our Saviour Christ’s sake.