Prayer LXVII
O Lord our God, Who art always near us, and ready to come down to us, lift us up to Thee, we beseech Thee; and help us now that in our deepest hearts we may be aware of Thy sweet and strength-giving Presence, and may reach out our desires towards Thyself.
We thank Thee that amidst the many occupations, and, peradventure, troubles and cares of another day, we have the opportunity of gathering ourselves together, and helping each other’s weakness to be strong. We thank Thee for all the blessings that come to those who in secret and solitude seek Thy face. We thank Thee for all the blessings which come to those who, in company with others, draw near to Thee; and we beseech Thee that we may, in our own experience now, unite both conditions and possess both blessings. We would draw near to Thee each for ourselves. We would feel that we are not alone when we approach Thee. We pray that Thy Spirit may be poured out upon us, and that we may be helped in all the hour of our service now; that our thoughts may be lifted up towards Thee, and we may hear that voice which Christ’s sheep do hear, and hearing follow.
We thank Thee for that good Shepherd, we thank Thee for that Door into the fold of God. We bless Thee that He hath laid down His life for the sheep. We thank Thee that this sacrifice of His brings life to us, and abundance of all needful good. We beseech Thee that for none of us may it be in vain that we hear the good news. May we never self-willedly wander in paths of our own choosing, but may we ever follow the footsteps of the flock, and be guided by the Shepherd’s care. We thank Thee that we can so fully cast ourselves upon Thy promised help and mercy; and that we, as Thy servants of old, can say that if the Lord is our Shepherd we shall not want, and can be sure that goodness will follow us, as it has followed us, all the days of our lives; and that when these days are over, we may still hope to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
O Lord, accept our praises for Thy continual mercies to us, for all the faithful fulfilment of these great promises which Thou hast bestowed; and draw us nearer to Thee that we may live more doubly obedient to Thy leading, and more sweetly dependent upon Thy grace and strength, more aware of Thy guidance and more disposed to obey it.
We come to Thee this evening, and acknowledge our own weakness and manifold sins. O Lord, do Thou purge our hearts, we pray Thee, from every drop of bitterness. May there be no recognised and permitted evil thing in us. May we have grace given to us to search our own spirits as with the candle of the Lord, and do Thou Thyself search us and try us, and reveal to us, we pray Thee, our secret faults, the things of which we are not aware in us, which are contrary to Thy holy will. May we possess the happiness of the man who condemneth not himself in the things that he alloweth, and we pray Thee that Thou wouldst forgive all that has been contrary to Thy will. And, O Lord, help us, day by day, to learn more deeply the truth as it is in Jesus, that we may be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and may yield ourselves, in the fullest sense, living sacrifices.
We bless Thee for all the blessedness that comes to those who are not their own, and do not desire to be so; and we pray for deliverance from ourselves, and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us to be the priests and the temples and the sacrifices, offering up ourselves to God in reliance on that great Sacrifice, which does for each of us what no sacrifice of ours can do for ourselves, as the propitiation for our sins.
Be with us, we beseech Thee, in our worship of this evening; and help us to hear, to speak, and to meditate upon Thy great, true, and blessed promises, and to carry away from this meeting some impulses that may abide with us, and may go to strengthening the good in our souls, and to weakening all the evil. We desire to commend one another to Thy care, and we beseech Thee to be near any of us who may have any specially felt need of grace and help from Thyself. We thank Thee, O Lord, that as of old it is true that in all Thy children’s afflictions Thou art afflicted, and the Angel of Thy Presence saves them. May it be so with each of us, and if there are any of us to whom the promise may be specially needful and grateful this evening, fulfil it, O Lord, even now in our own experience. We bless Thee that we do not need to ask Thee for the removal of the sorrows so much as that we may be chastened and disciplined and profited thereby. We ask Thee to help us to yield ourselves to God, and to stand to the surrender in regard to disappointments, losses, and crosses, and all the burdens of this earthly life, as well as in regard to all the work and activity of mind and hand.
O Lord, bless, we pray Tbee, with the outpouring of Thy own Spirit all our work as members of a Christian communion; bring us closer, we pray Thee, to our Lord; and stir up in all the hearts who love and profess to serve Thee here a purer spirit of consecration and a clearer understanding of the purpose for which Thou hast set us in the world, and given us Thy grace, that we may be Thy witnesses to men. May the word of the Lord fructify through us to many. May we all be able to declare to our brethren and to others that we have found the Messias, and may the declaration be a large part of our felt duty here on earth. We thank Thee for the many ways by which Thy people can show forth the praises of Him that hath called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. We ask Thee that increasingly the members of this Church and congregation may be distinguished by the faithful use of all their duties and declaration, for the glory of God, of the mission of Jesus Christ.
And now we pray for the forgiveness of all that has been am.is8 in our service, and that Thou wilt give the consciousness of Thy presence and Thy favour, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.