Prayer for Weanedness from the World
“They are not of the world — even as I am not of the world.” John 17:16
O my Father, I desire to come into Your gracious presence this night, beseeching You to bless me. Let my prayer come before You as incense. May the incense-offering of gratitude and thanksgiving ascend from a grateful heart. How manifold are the proofs I have to recount of kindness on your part! How deep the ingratitude I have to mourn on my own! My sins have reached unto the clouds — they are more in number than the sand of the sea!
You are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. I cannot evade Your righteous scrutiny — all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom I have to do! Lord, I have to lament the proneness of my evil heart of unbelief, ever to depart away from You, the living God. I mourn the debasing influence of earthly things — the fascinating power of a present evil world. How inclined I am to conform to its evil maxims and unholy practices! How often I am found among those who “mind earthly things” — my soul cleaving to the dust, instead of soaring upwards to Yourself, my sole satisfying portion!
O my Father, it is my earnest prayer that You would wean me from the world. Keep me from over-anxiety about the things that are seen — from being over-careful and troubled about earth’s “many things” — to the exclusion of the one thing needful! Break every alluring worldly spell; disenchant temporal things of their false and delusive charm; disengage me by all the beneficial discipline of Your providence — from what is fleeting, uncertain, transient, perishable; and unite me to the things which cannot be shaken — but which remain forever! May my heart be more in Heaven — imbibing more of the pilgrim spirit. May I declare plainly that I seek a better country.
May the sins of the past day be forgiven — may the blood of sprinkling wash their guilt away. May I be driven nearer and closer to Him who is the true refuge and portion and Savior of His people. I rejoice to think that He has . . .
a balm for every wound,
a comfort for every bosom,
a solace for every tear!
May it be mine to go up through this ‘wilderness world’ — leaning on His loving and omnipotent arm!
May Your Holy Spirit carry on His own work of sanctification within me. May He enlighten, quicken, comfort, strengthen me — and mold me in gradual conformity to Your divine will.
Bless all connected with me, by whatever tie. “When earth’s separations are at an end — take me and all who are dear to me, to the enjoyment of Your presence and love in Your own everlasting kingdom. Let the pillar of Your presence be over us this night. Guard me during sleep’s unconscious hours. Let no unquiet dreams disturb my repose; may I compose myself to rest under the sweet assurance that You the Lord, sustain me; and when I awake, may I be still 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
