Excerpt from Spurgeon Prayer Kindle
Lord, You know there are some that have not yet begun to live for You,
And the prayer is now offered that they may today be born again. Others
have been long in Your ways and are not weary of them. We Sometimes
wonder that You arc not weary of us, but assuredly we delight ourselves
in the ways of holiness more than ever we did. Oh! that our ways were
directed to keep Your statutes without slipping or flaws. We wish we
were perfectly obedient in thought, and word, and deed, entirely sanctified.
We shall never be satisfied till we wake up in Christ's likeness, the likeness
of perfection itself.
Oh! wake us to this perfection, we beseech You. May experience teach us
more and more how to avoid occasions of sin. May we grow more watchful;
may we have a greater supremacy over our own spirit; may we be able to
control ourselves under all circumstances, and so act that if the Master were
to come at any moment we should not be ashamed to give our account in His hands.
Lord, we are not what we want to be. This is our sorrow. Oh! that You
would, by Your Spirit, help us in the walks of life to adorn the doctrine
of God our Saviour in all things. As men of business, as work-people, as
parents, as children, as servants, as masters, whatever we may be, may we
be such that Christ may look on us with pleasure. May His joy be in us,
for then only can our joy be full.
Dear Savior, we are Your disciples, and You are teaching us the art of
living; but we are very dull and very slow, and beside, there is such a
bias in our corrupt nature, and there are such examples in the world, and
the influence of an ungodly generation tells even on those that know You.
O, dear Saviour, do not be impatient with us, but still teach us at Your
feet, till at last we shall have learned some of the sublime lessons of
self-sacrifice, of meekness, humility, fervor, boldness, and love which
Your life is fit to teach us. O Lord, we beseech You to mold us in Your
own image. Let us live in You and live like You. Let us gaze on Your
glory till we are transformed by the sight and become Christlike among
the sons of men.
Lord, hear the confessions of any that have backslidden, who are rather
marring Your image than perfecting it. Hear the prayers of any that are
conscious of great defects during the past. Give them peace of mind by
pardon, but give them strength of mind also to keep clear of such
mischief in the future. O Lord, we are sighing and crying more and more
after Yourself. The more we have of You the more we want You; the more
we grow like You; the more we perceive our defects, and the more we pine
after a higher standard to reach even to perfection itself.
Oh! help us. Spirit of the living God, continue still to work in us.
Let the groanings that cannot be uttered be stilled within our Spirit,
for these are growing pains, and we shall grow while we can sigh and cry,
while we can confess and mourn; yet this is not without a blessed
hopefulness that He that has begun a good work in us will perfect it in
the day of Christ.
Bless, we pray You, at this time, the entire church of God in every part
of the earth. Prosper the work and service of Christian people, however
they endeavor to spread the kingdom of Christ. Convert the heathen;
enlighten those that are in any form of error. Bring the entire church
back to the original form of Christianity. Make her first pure and then
she shall be united. O Savior, let Your kingdom come. Oh! that You would
reign and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
