Prayer for Restoring Grace
“Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation.” Psalm 51:12
Blessed God, I rejoice to know that the gates of prayer are ever open — that for the sake of Jesus Christ, my adorable Redeemer, You are waiting to be gracious — not willing that any should perish.
Come in the plenitude of Your love this evening, that I may feel it to be good for me to draw near to You! Scatter my darkness, O better Sun — with the brightness of Your rising. Give me filial confidence in approaching the mercy-seat, rejoicing in the mightiest of all Beings as my Father and Friend.
Blessed Jesus! I would exercise a simple confidence and trust in Your finished work, I would seek to wash anew in the opened fountain of Your blood, to repose anew in the faithful saying which never can cease, to the sin-stricken, sin-burdened soul, to be worthy of all acceptance — that You came into the world to save the chief of sinners.
I have to mourn, O my Father, my constant proneness to depart from You — the instability of my best purposes of obedience. Unsupported by Your grace — I must fall. There is nothing, O great Intercessor within the veil — but Your omnipotent pleadings — between me and irretrievable ruin. But You have prayed, and are even now praying, for me that my faith fail not. Oh if I am still prone to start aside, like a deceitful bow — bring me back again! Reclaim my truant heart from its wanderings. I would cast myself with simple dependence on Your grace for the future. This is sufficient for all needs — and equal to all exigencies. Your everlasting arms are lower than my deepest necessities. Adorable Savior, I may well cast my every care on You, for these cares You make Your own. You have a heart to feel — for those who have often no heart to feel for themselves. Oh let me ever seek to hear Your directing voice — and to hear no other.
Carry on within me Your own work in your own way. O, Great Shepherd of Israel, You cannot lead me wrong. I delight to trace Your guiding love in the past, and I may well trust You still. Going up through the wilderness, may I lean on Your arm. When I come to die, may the gloom of the dark valley be lighted with the rays of Your love, and may I hear Your voice whispering in gentle accents, “Fear not, for I am with you!”
Be gracious to all my beloved friends. Train them also, by Your good Spirit, for eternity. Fit them for every duty. Arm them against every temptation. Dispose them to fear Your glorious name, and to live from day to day under the powers and influences of a world to come. Compassionate the afflicted; comfort the bereaved; support the dying.
O my Father, take the charge of me during the silent watches of another night. May I rise on the morrow to renew my work and warfare on earth, looking forward to the time when the twilight of this world shall melt into everlasting day — and when nothing shall evermore mar or interrupt the blessedness of endless communion with You. Through Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Savior. Amen.
“Let my prayer be set forth before You as incense — and the lifting up of my hands, as the evening sacrifice.”
-John MacDuff
