Friday’s Prayer

“Penitence”

O LORD OF GRACE,

I have been hasty and short in 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 shoudst withdraw thy presence

from one who waited carelessly on thee,

Keep me at all times from robbing thee,

and from depriving my soul of thy due worship;

Let me never forget

that I have an eternal duty to love, honour and obey thee,

that thou art infinitely worthy of such;

that if I fail to glorify thee

I am guilty of infinite evil that merits infinite punishment,

for sin is the violation of an infinite obligation.

O forgive me if I have dishonoured thee,

Melt my heart, heal my backslidings,

and open an intercourse of love.

When the fire of thy compassion warms my inward man,

and the outpourings of thy Spirit fill my soul,

then I feelingly wonder at my own depravity,

and deeply abhor myself;

then thy grace is a powerful incentive to repentance,

and an irresistable motive to inward holiness.

May I never forget

That thou hast my heart in thy hands.

Apply to it merits of Christ’s atoning blood whenever I sin.

Let thy mercies draw me to thyself.

Wear me from all evil, mortify me to the world,

and make me ready for my departure hence

animated by humiliations of pentential love.

My soul is often a chariot without wheels,

clogged and hindered in sin’s miry clay;

Mount it on eagle’s wings and cause it to soar upward to thyself.

(“The Valley of Vision” Copyright 1975, The Banner of Truth Trust. [pg. 90])