For Support in Temptation
“Hold Thou me up, and I shall “be safe.” — Ps. cxix. 117.
Most gracious God, give me grace to begin a new morning with Thee. Ere entering on the world, I invoke Thy blessing. Before I hear the voice of earthly friend, or mingle in earthly society, may I have a aonscious filial nearness to Thee, my Father in heaven. O Thou better, tenderer, dearer than all on earth, give me the sweet assurance of Thy presence and favor. With this, all the day’s joys will be joys indeed — with this, the sting will be extracted from the day’s sorrows. In quiet confidence I will repose on Thy covenant faithfulness. I need no other benediction, Lord, if I have Thine. Other portions
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may fail me, but I am independent of all, if “Thou art the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”
I adore and bless Thy holy name for every past token of Thy kindness and forbearance. The retrospect of life is a retrospect of love. I am a wonder to myself that Thou hast spared me — that mercy is remembered when nothing but wrath is deserved. “Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had long ere now dwelt in silence.”
On that same arm I would desire still to lean. I am compassed about with a great fight of afflictions, and the sorest and saddest of all are my sins. But I fly to Thee, thou helper of the helpless. Give me to know what it is to dismiss all my own guilty misgivings, and to rest my simyle faith on a tried Redeemer. It is mistrust of Him that has been the cause of many a bygone fall. I have been dwelling more on the strength of my temptations than on the strength of my Saviour. O “hold Thou me up, blessed Jesus! and I shall be safe.” Whenever in the way of sin, give me to realize the all-sufciency of Thy grace. May every hurricane of temptation drive me more under the shelter of the Eocb. May the loss of every earthly prop lead me to Thyself — the only abiding refuge. No step in the wilderness-journey would I take without Thee. No loss would I mourn when sustained at Thy bidding. No enemy would I fear if Thou art on my side. Hold Thou me up, and then indeed I shall be safe — safe for time — safe for eternity.
And the same support I ask for myself, I beseech Thee to vouchsafe to all near and dear to me. May the Lord God be their “sun and shield.” May they experience no temptation “above what they are able to bear;” or, with the temptation, grant them grace that they may be able to bear it. And when all earthly dangers, and toils, and trials are over, may we all be enabled to meet in glory, and trace there, with adoring gratitude and joy, the way in which Thy mercy through life “has held us up.”
Anew I commend myself, body and soul, to Thee this day. For Thy dear Son’s sake, forgive all my sins. My sole trust is in the atoning blood. May I feel this to be the best preservative against temptation and sin, that all I am, and all I have, is not my own, but belongs to the Lord who died for me. Hear these my unworthy supplications, and grant me an answer in peace, for His sake. Amen.
* CAUSE ME TO HEAR THY LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE MORNING, FOR IN THEE DO I TRUST.”
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