Prayer LX

Blessed be God! Who hath not turned away our prayer nor His mercy from us. We thank Thee, O Lord, that even our poor tongues are permitted to extol Thee. May our hearts be filled and deeply impressed with the sense of Thy love, Thy sweetness, Thy readiness to hear. Thy loving forbearance with the imperfection of our praises, and the folly too often of our petitions.

We bless Thee that not only hast Thou an ear and a hand to help, but that Thou dost teach us how to pray, and what to pray for. We need Thy teaching, for surely our hearts often deceive us and lead us away, and our notions of what is good for us are not Thy will. But we bless Thee that though sometimes, in the mystery of Thy providence Thy ways are different from what we would have them, yet they are always higher than our ways as the heavens are higher than the earth. And they always, as the heavens do, send down on earth sweet influences, of dew and sunshine and rain, which make the barren places to rejoice and blossom as the rose. May it be so with us, O Lord! May our emptiness be more and more filled with Thy fulness, our weakness transformed into Thy strength, and all our ignorant wishes brought into submission to the perfect wisdom and perfect love of Thy dealings with us; so that our hearts may be set free to desire most earnestly the best things, and to covet strongly the true and only good.

Bring us, we pray Thee, more and more into fellowship with, and possession of. Thine own self. Who art our Portion and the Strength of our hearts for ever. Clear out of our thoughts and wishes everything that is contrary to Thy holy will, O Lord! Give us strength, we beseech Thee, to subdue and to hold well in hand all our tastes and tendencies, our passions and desires, and that we may more and more be able to bring our whole selves to be governed by Thee. ‘If we regard iniquity in our hearts the Lord will not hear us.’ We beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us to fight against all evil that may be lurking there, and to submit ourselves more willingly, consciously, constantly to Thy discipline, which has no other end in view but our perfecting in the participation of Thy holiness. Teach us the meaning of life; teach us to see great possibilities and purposes in the small things that befall us. Interpret for us our difficulties and our trials. May our temptations minister strength by being overcome in Thy power. May our joys feed the flame of our thankful devotion, and everything that we meet with in this life bring us nearer to Thyself, and put us more fully in possession of the life which is life indeed.

We beseech Thee to cleanse our hearts from everything that is contrary to Thy holy will, to clear our eyes that we may see more plainly and substantially the things that are unseen and eternal, to draw our hearts more and more to Thee, and detach them more and more from any intimate attachment to the things that are seen and temporal. Thus, we pray Thee, train and educate us through our days, and help us to be willing, docile, profiting scholars in Thy great school. In Thy great mercy draw near to us, and grant that to-day our public worship and our private meditation, and any work that we may seek to do for Christ’s sake, may be full of blessing to ourselves and to others. Grant Thy gracious help for our Saviour Christ’s sake.