I have long had a fondness for liturgical worship and prayer, even though I grew up in a Baptist church that often prided itself on not being liturgical (or so they thought). I am helped by structured worship services. I have also found myself drawn to reading and using written prayers in my devotional life. I am currently working my way through Daily Liturgy Devotional: 40 Days of Worship and Prayer, by Douglas Sean O’Donnell, and am loving it. Two other favorites that I have had over the years are A Private House of Prayer, by Leslie D. Weatherhead, and The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, by Arthur Bennett.
Shortly after my mother passed away two years ago, I found among her things a small book titled, A Diary of Private Prayer, by Scottish theologian John Baillie. Published in 1936, it features a morning and evening prayer for each day. It has pride of place on my reading table.
For this month’s post on prayer, I am sharing one of the morning prayers, found on page 53 of the 1949 American edition. I have taken the liberty of updating some of the wording.
I hope that this prayer will help guide you in praying for yourself and your families, as well as for your Chinese friends.
Eternal God, although we cannot see you with our eyes or touch you with our hands yet grant us this day a conviction of your reality and power.
Let us not do our work believing only in the world of sense and time but give us grace to understand that the world we cannot see, or touch is the most real world of all.
Our lives today will be lived in time, but eternal issues will be involved.
The needs of our bodies will be strident, but it is for the needs of our souls that we must care most.
Our work will be with material things, but behind them let us be aware of things spiritual.
Let us always keep in mind that the things that matter are not money or possessions, not houses or lands, not bodily comfort or bodily pleasure; but truth and honor and meekness and helpfulness and a pure love for you.
For the power you have given us to behold things unseen:
For the strong sense that this is not our home:
For our restless hearts which nothing finite can satisfy:
We give you thanks, O God.
For the invasion of our souls by the Holy Spirit:
For all human love and goodness that speak to us of You:
For the fullness of your glory poured out in Jesus Christ:
We give you thanks, O God.
We, pilgrims of eternity, stand before you, O eternal one.
Let us not seek to deaden or destroy the desire for you that disturbs our hearts.
Let us rather yield ourselves to the constraint and go where it leads us.
Make us wise to see all things today in light of eternity and make us brave to face all the changes in our lives which such a vision may entail.
Through the grace of Christ our Savior.
Amen.
I heartily recommend this book. For those who struggle with a lot of “thees” and “thous” and other slightly archaic language, Simon & Schuster has published an updated version using modern language.
