Prayer XCIX
O Lord, our gracious Father, Who kuowest all our needs yet better than we know them ourselves, we often ask for stones thinking them to be bread. Thou knowest better. We thank Thee for the refusal of foolish petitions, we thank Thee for the granting of all that are in accordance with Thy will which is love. We beseech Thee that we may carry into our daily lives the firm assurances that no evil befalls them who put their hope on the Lord their God. Give us more of that sweet and ennobling love which shall work like magic upon all sorrows and pains, and make them all ministers of blessing. If any of us here this morning have come into Thy house with heavy hearts, breathe Thy peace into their spirits, and help us to rise above whatever may be sad and dark in our present experiences, and lead us into the light and gladness of Thy own gracious presence, and accepted will.
O Lord! guide us day by day in the little and in the great things of life. May we feel that we have Thee near us. Keep us from the sluggishness of spirit that often creeps over us. Deliver us from the indifference to our highest good, and our blindness to the most solemn and important realities; and help us to order our lives wisely, making the first things first, and seeking chiefly and primarily the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We feel that our lives have been too often misordered and distracted with a multiplicity of trifles. Help us to be willing to exchange the many for the One, the goodly pearls for the Pearl of great price, which we are rich if we part with all and so possess.
O Lord! speak to us in Thy grace this morning. Breathe Thy word into our hearts and minds. May hearers and speaker alike feel that they are in the presence of the oracle of God, and that Thou Thyself art with us now.
We commend to Thee all whom we love; we pray Thee to bless all good people who are trying to do Thy holy will, especially those who are seeking to spread the knowledge of Jesus, and of His great salvation throughout the world.
And now, O Lord, we desire to commend ourselves to Thee. We pray Thee to bless us and be with us, to forgive and answer us, through Christ our Saviour.