Prayer LI
Gladly and thankfully, O Lord, would we come to Thee. We bless Thee that we can lift our thoughts to the place where Thou art, and though we cannot comprehend we can draw near and rejoice that all which we can know of Thee is so blessed as to make us sure that what we do not know is blessed even more. We thank Thee for the darkness which is light inaccessible. We thank Thee for the light in which we can walk. We thank Thee for the light which has come near to us in Jesus Christ, the brightness of Thy glory. We thank Thee for the light which comes into heart and conscience there, and we pray that in Thy light We may see light. Too often we have thought it darkness; too often we have been blind, as they that grope sightless in the noontide. Too often we have shut our eyes against Thee. Clothe our spirits with the sweet radiance of Thy loving presence, and help us more and more to rejoice in the dayspring from on high which hath visited us.
We come to Thee, O Lord, to bless Thee for all Thy great mercies to us; to spread before Thee our many wants. Often we construe them wrongly, and think we need things that we do not need, and are insensible to the true supply of our true needs. We beseech Thee to teach us, O Lord, what we really want, and to help us to seek jBrst the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and ’ all things that are lovely and of good report ‘; and the sweetness of communion with Thee, and the power of yielding ourselves submissively to Thy governance and control. And we ask that Thou wouldst deliver us from foolish choosing after folly, from the seeking after vanity which makes us vain, and wouldst help us more and more to discern where our true riches are, even in Thyself.
O Lord, we bring to Thee our weakness, and pray for Thy strength. Day by day we have to encounter things that are too much for us. It is not only our iniquities that prevail against us, but our duties often press very heavily upon us, and make us feel that we are insufficient for these things; and the varying dealings of Thy providence with us, with the swift alternations of shadow, sunshine, good and evil, call for more than we can live rightly to grasp and confess them, rightly to use and to profit by them. So we ask that in all the maze of daily life Thy hand may lead us, smoothing out the rough places, and making the crooked places straight for the feet that would walk in Thy commandments. And we pray that whatever we may have to encounter we may have God with us, and so be more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Be Thy mercy upon us now, as our hope is in Thee, and not only according as, but exceeding abundantly above, all that we can ask or think.
Thou dost sometimes surprise and shame Thy petitioners with the abundance of Thy dealings. May it be so with us this morning, and if it please Thee come into our assembly; and although our petitions and praises are but poor, as compared with what they ought to be, let Thy gracious Spirit be granted to each of us, and may we feel that it is no vain thing to wait upon the Lord. We commit ourselves to Thy gracious care, and beseech Thee to remember all whom we remember, and to speak Thy grace to waiting souls, and Thy loving rebukes to forgetful ones; to draw us all out of the mire in which we are too apt to walk, and to set our feet upon the rock, and establish our goings.
Hear, and in Thy great mercy accept and answer us, for our Saviour Christ’s sake.