Prayer XCIII
O Lord, our God, we thank Thee that we have learnt not to think that the visitation of God means judgment and sorrow. These are Thy strange work, but Thou delightest when Thou canst come to us; in Thy coming be as the morning which breaks upon a dark world.
We thank Thee for such visitations and drawings near of Thy sweet power and of Thy strong mercy. We thank Thee for life breathed into death, for healing from the lip of the Life and the Healer. We thank Thee for all the great gifts which flow to us through Jesus Christ; and since Thou hast lavished so much upon us we beseech Thee that Thy mercy may not be for any of us as waters spilt upon the ground which cannot be gathered up. May our cup be ever held forth to receive the showers of blessings. May our hearts never be closed to Thine open heart, nor our hands held back when Thy hand is stretched forth. “We feel that Thy giving is perfect; alas! for our receiving. And we pray Thee to forgive, and to make us capable of larger gifts of Thine. And may we indeed open our mouths wide that Thou mayest fill them. Enlarge our desires, we beseech Thee, and our expectations and our faith, for Thou art able to give us ’ exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.’
Forgive us, then, if we have been starving in the midst of plenty; poor when Thy riches are held forth to us, or lacking anything when we have a God to go to that gives liberally. Make us more and more faithful in our use of Thy benefits, for surely ’ to him that hath shall be given.’ And strengthen us to use all which Thou dost bestow upon us, whether in the way of natural capacity or providences, bright or dark, sorrowful or joyful, for opportunities of any kind to make ourselves and others better and more like Thee. Help us to use them all as stewards, and so to enter upon the fuller possession of them as sons.
Bless each of us here before Thee, Lord! Thou knowest our necessities, our circumstances, our tasks, our temptations, our weaknesses of nature and the greater weaknesses that our own bad guiding of ourselves has brought us into. Shape Thou Thy gifts according to our needs, we beseech Thee; and since we all need Thee, and each need Thee, in a separate way, we pray Thee that the one inexhaustible benefit may come to each of us in the shape which we most require. And so ’ give us this day our daily bread.’
We beseech Thee to comfort and succour any of us that are in sorrow, to draw near to any that are burdened in heart, to shed light upon any whose paths may be dark and perplexing, to deliver us from errors of thought and from faults of practice; and to keep us in all changing circumstances, in the perfect peace of those who have yielded their wills to Thee.
We beseech Thee for Thy help when we try to speak a word in Thy Name. Thou knowest the weakness of hearers and of speaker, and the many things which come in to distract and disturb and weaken our thoughts and Thy Word; but we pray that Thou wouldst be near, that Thou wouldst lift us above our ordinary selves, that Thou wouldst open our minds and hearts to the full influences of the radiance of Thy sunshine, and wouldst speak through us, even us also, that lips may be touched with the live coal, and the word of the Lord be magnified.
Hear us in our prayer, forgive our many sins, and draw near to us and bless us now, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.