Prayer for the Life of Faith!

John MacDuff, 1856 

"The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20

O my Father, I desire to draw near unto Your blessed presence, on this evening of another day, adoring You for all the loving-kindness which You are continually making to pass before me. May I ever be enabled to look up to You as the Author and Bestower of all my mercies. May no created good ever be allowed to dispossess You of my affections. May all that I enjoy, alike temporal and spiritual - be traced to You, the Fountain of all happiness. 

May prosperity be hallowed, by receiving it as a pledge of Your favor; and may trial lose its bitterness, by the consciousness that every thorn in my path is permitted by You, and every bitter drop in the cup appointed by You.

May I thus seek, O my Father, from day to day, to live a life of simple faith and dependence on Your grace. With confiding love, may I commit my every care and need and perplexity to Your better direction, feeling sweetly assured that You will guide me by a right way to the city of habitation.

Above all, would I seek a renewed interest in those covenant blessings which Christ died to purchase - and which He is exalted to bestow. All my hope is in Him! Weak, helpless, perishing - I flee to Him, as the help and hope and portion of all who seek Him. Hide me, O blessed Jesus, in Your wounded side. I would overcome alone, through the blood of the Lamb. "Wash me thoroughly in Your precious blood. May I hear Your own voice of pardoning love saying, "Your sins which are many, are all forgiven."

After all You have done for me - let me harbor no guilty and unworthy suspicions of Your faithfulness. Let me feel assured that Your tender love regulates all Your allotments. You are pledged to use the dealing and discipline best suited for Your people's case, and what will best effect Your own will concerning them, even their sanctification. Carry on within me Your own work - in Your own way. 

Fortify me against temptation; let me not surrender myself to the base compliances of a world lying in wickedness. But, strong in the Lord and in the power of His might - may I know that He who is with me is far greater, than all who can be against me. Oh enkindle afresh my expiring, languishing love; let me live more under the influence of "eternal realities," having the eye of faith more upwards and homewards, looking for that blessed hope, even the glorious appearing of my great God my Savior.

Let Your kingdom come! Arise, O my Father, and plead Your own cause. May all the ends of the earth soon be gladdened with the Gospel's joyful sound!

Bless all Your people in sorrow, all bereaved of near and dear friends; may they see no hand in their trials, but Yours. You give us our blessings; and when You see fit - You revoke the grant. Let us see love in every threatening wave, all rolling at Your bidding.

O my Father, take the charge of me this night. Abide with me, blessed Savior, for it is toward evening and the day is far spent. Oh, may it be mine to feel that each successive evening as it brings me nearer to eternity - is ripening me for its never-ending joys. And all I ask is for Jesus' sake. Amen.

"Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense - and the lifting up of my hands, as the evening sacrifice."

This Prayer is an excerpt of John MacDuff prayer written in 1856  The ebook  is now available on Kindle for only $0.99