Devotionals

O LORD OF GRACE, I have been hasty and short in private prayer,     O quicken my conscience to feel this folly,     to bewail this ingratitude; My first sin of the day leads into others,   and it is just that thou shouldst withdraw     thy presence   from one who waited carelessly on thee. Keep me at all […]

SOVEREIGN COMMANDER OF THE UNIVERSE, I am sadly harassed by doubts, fears, unbelief,     in a felt spiritual darkness. My heart is full of evil surmisings and disquietude,   and I cannot act faith at all. My heavenly Pilot has disappeared,   and I have lost my hold on the Rock of Ages; I sink in deep mire […]

O THOU TERRIBLE MEEK, Let not pride swell my heart.       My nature is the mire beneath my feet,       the dust to which I shall return. In body I surpass not the meanest reptile; Whatever difference of form and intellect is mine   is a free grant of thy goodness; Every faculty of mind and body is […]

LORD JESUS, I sin — Grant that I may     never cease grieving because of it,     never be content with myself,     never think I can reach a point of perfection. Kill my envy, command my tongue,   trample down self. Give me grace to be holy, kind, gentle, pure,   peaceable,     to live for thee and not for […]

O LORD, Whose power is infinite and wisdom infallible,       Order things that they may neither hinder,     nor discourage me,     nor prove obstacles to the progress of thy cause; Stand between me and all strife, that no evil befall,     no sin corrupt my gifts, zeal, attainments; May I follow duty and not any foolish device     of […]

MY FATHER, When thou art angry towards me for my         wrongs I try to pacify thee by abstaining from future sin; But teach me   that I cannot satisfy thy law,   that this effort is a resting in my righteousness,   that only Christ’s righteousness, ready made,     already finished, is fit for that purpose;   that thy chastising […]

O MERCIFUL GOD, When I hear of disagreeable things amongst       Christians,   it brings an additional weight and burden     on my spirit; I come to thee in my distress and make lamentable   complaint; Teach me how to take reproofs from friends,   even though I think I do not deserve them; Use them to make me tenderly […]

O GOD MOST HIGH, MOST GLORIOUS, The thought of thine infinite serenity       cheers me, For I am toiling and moiling, troubled     and distressed,   but thou art for ever at perfect peace. Thy designs cause thee no fear or care     of unfulfilment,   they stand fast as the eternal hills. Thy power knows no bond,   thy goodness […]

O LORD, Help me to approach thee         with becoming conception of thy nature,   relations and designs. Thou inhabitest eternity, and   my life is nothing before thee; Thou dwellest in the highest heaven and   this cannot contain thee;     I live in a house of clay. Thy power is almighty;     I am crushed before the moth. Thy […]

O LIVING GOD, I bless thee       that I see the worst of my heart as well as     the best of it,   that I can sorrow for those sins that carry me     from thee,   that it is thy deep and dear mercy to threaten     punishment so that I may return, pray, live. My sin is to […]

MERCIFUL LORD, Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year,       all the sins of my life,   sins of early, middle, and advanced years,     of omission and commission,     of morose, peevish and angry tempers,     of lip, life and walk,     of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption,       pride,     of unfaithfulness to the souls of men,     of want of bold […]

ETERNAL FATHER, It is amazing love,     that thou hast sent thy Son       to suffer in my stead,     that thou hast added the Spirit       to teach, comfort, guide,     that thou hast allowed the ministry of angels       to wall me round; All heaven subserves the welfare of a poor worm. Permit thy unseen servants to be ever […]

O LORD, No day of my life has passed that has not         proved me guilty in thy sight.         Prayers have been uttered from a   prayerless heart; Praise has been often praiseless sound; My best services are filthy rags. Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in thy appeasing   wounds. Though my sins rise to heaven […]

THOU GREAT I AM, Fill my mind with elevation and grandeur at       the thought of a Being   with whom one day is as a thousand years,   and a thousand years as one day, A mighty God, who, amidst the lapse of worlds,   and the revolutions of empires,   feels no variableness,   but is glorious in immortality. […]

THOU GREAT I AM, I acknowledge and confess that all things     come of thee —   life, breath, happiness, advancement,   sight, touch, hearing,   goodness, truth, beauty –   all that makes existence amiable. In the spiritual world also I am dependent     entirely upon thee. Give me grace to know more of my need of grace; Show me […]