For Renewal of Heart
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit -witliin me.” — Pa. li. 10.
Almighty God, who hast mercifully preserved me during the unconscious hours of slumber, I desire to dedicate my waking moments and thoughts to Thee. Do Thou preoccupy my mind with hallowed and heavenly things. May I be enabled throughout this day, by the help of Thy Holy Spirit, to exclude all that is vain, and frivolous, and sinful, and to have my affections centred on Thee, as my best portion and chiefest joy. As Thy Spirit of old did brood over the face of the waters, may that same blessed Spirit descend in all the plenitude of His heavenly graces, that the gloom of a deeper moral chaos may be dispersed, and that mine may be the beauty and happiness and gladness of a soul that has been transformed “from darkness to light, and from the power of sin and Satan unto God.”
Forbid, blessed Lord! that I should be resting in anything short of this new creation. May my old nature be crucified; and, as one alive from the dead, may I “walk with Jesus in newness of life.” May the new life infused by Thy Spirit urge me to higher attainments and more heavenly aspirations. May I be enabled to see the world in its true light — its pleasures fading, its hopes delusive, its friendships perishable. May I be more solemnly and habitually impressed by the surpassing magnitude of “the things not seen.” May I give evidence of the reality of a renewal of heart by a more entire and consistent dedication of the life. May my soul become a temple of the Holy Ghost; may “Holiness to the Lord” be its superscription. May I be led to feel that there can be no true
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joy but what emanates from Thyself, the fountain and fulness of all joy — the God in whom “all my well-springs” are.
Whatever may be the discipline Thou art employing for this inward heart-transformation, let me be willing to submit to it. Let me lie passive in the arms of -Thy mercy, saying, “Undertake Thou for me.” May it be mine to bear all, and endure all, and rejoice in all — adoring a Father’s hand, and trusting a Father’s faithfulness — feeling secure in a Father’s tried love.
Blessed Jesus! anew would I wash in the opened Fountain. The new heart, like every i holy blessing I can ask, is the purchase of; that blood which Thou didst so freely shed. May it be sprinkled on my guilty conscience. May I know ever what it is to be living on a living Saviour, bringing all-emptiness to all-fulness — the unworthiness of infinite demerit to the worthiness of all-sufficient, all-abounding, grace and mercy.
Do Thou shine upon my ways. May I this day get nearer heaven. May I feel at its close that I have done something for God — something to promote the great end for which existence was given me — the glory of Thy holy name. Bless all my beloved friends. Unite us together in bonds of holy fellowship here; and at last, in Thy presence, may we be permitted to drink together of the streams of everlasting love. And all I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
“CATJSJE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST.*’