For Wisdom in Perplexity
“Cause me to kno’w the way ■wlierein I should “walk, foi I lift up ray soul unto Thee.” — Ps. cxliii. 8.
0 ETEENAL Lord, whose nature and whose name is love, I bless Thee that I am again invited into Thy presence. “What am I, that I should be permitted to speak to the infinite God! I might have been left through eternity a monument of Thy righteous vengeance. I might have known Thee only as “the consuming fire.” But “Thy ways are not as man’s ways;” mercy is remembered when wrath might have come upon me to the uttermost.
1 desire to begin this day, blessing and
praising Thee for “Thine unspeakable gift,”
Jesus the Son of Thy love. Adored be Thy name, that the guilt of my sin, which the holiness of Thy law could not suffer otherwise to be cancelled, has to Him been transferred — that, as the scape-goat of His people. He has borne the mighty load into the land of oblivion, ne-ver more to be remembered. May I be enabled to show forth my lively grattitude to Thee for this wondrous token of Thy love, not only by lip-homage, but by heart and life devotion. Sanctify and seal me in body, soul, and spirit; and present me at last “faultless before the presence of Thy glory with exceeding joy.”
O my God, I rejoice to know that my interests for time and eternity are confided to Thy keeping. Though often “wonderful in counsel,” Thou art ever “excellent in working.” Thou art “God only wise” — “righteous in all Thy ways, and holy in all Thy works.” I commit my way and my doings unto Thee. “Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” May I trust Thy wisdom and faithfulness, even amid crosses, and losses, and frowning providences. Make them all work together for my good.
If my path be in any way now hedged up with thorns, “undertake Thou for me.” “Guide me with Thy counsel.” Let me take no step, and engage in no plan, unsanctioned by Thine approval. Let it be my grand aim and ambition, in all the changes of a changing life, to hear Thy directing voice, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it;” and then shall all life’s trials be sweetened, and life’s burden lightened, by knowing that they are the appointment of infinite wisdom and unchanging love, and that, though man may err, God never can.
May Thy Holy Spirit lead me this day into all the truth. May all its duties be pervaded by the leavening power of vital godliness. While in the world, may I seek to feel and to exhibit that I am not of it. May I give evidence, in my walk and conversation, of a renewed nature, and of a nobler destiny. Hasten, blessed Jesus, Thy coming and Thy kingdom. “How long shall the wicked triumph?” “Save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them Tip forever.”
Let the voice of salvation be heard in the households of all I love. May theirs be the dwellings of the righteous. May this be their name, “The Lord is there.” May they know Him who hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
And “now. Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in Thee.” Hear and answer these unworthy supplications, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
“CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST.”