"O Lord, in the morning I will direct my prayer to You."
"I die daily."—1 Cor. 15:31
Heavenly Father, who have permitted me, in Your great
mercy, to see the light of another day, enable me to begin and to end it with
You. Let all my thoughts and purposes and actions have the superscription
written on them—"Holiness to the Lord."
Give me to know the blessedness of reconciliation—what it
is, as a sinner, and the chief of sinners, to come "just as I am, without one
plea," to that blood "which cleanses from all sin." I desire to take hold of
the sublime assurance that Jesus is "able to save unto the uttermost"—that He
has left nothing for me as a suppliant at Your throne—a pensioner on Your
bounty—but to accept all as the gift and purchase of free, unmerited grace.
While I look to Him as my Savior from the penalty,
may I know Him also as my Deliverer from the power of sin. I have to
lament that so often I have yielded to its solicitations—that my heart, a
temple of the Holy Spirit, has been so often profaned and dishonored by the
"accursed thing," marring my spiritual joy, and sorely interrupting communion
with the Lord I love. Give me grace to exercise a godly jealousy over my
traitor affections—to live nearer You—to have the magnet of my heart more
centered on Yourself—to keep the eye of faith more steadily on Jesus—to live
more habitually under "the powers of the world to come." You know my
besetting sin—the plague of my heart, which so often leads to a guilty
estrangement. Lord, cut down this root of bitterness. Let me nail it to Your
cross. Let me be ever on the watchtower, ready to resist the first assault of
the enemy. Let it be to me at once a precept and a promise—"Sin shall not have
dominion over you." Oh show me that my strength to repel temptation is in
Jesus alone. Put me in the cleft of the rock when the hurricane is passing by.
May I be as willing to surrender all for my Savior—my heart sins and life
sins—as He willingly surrendered His all for me. May I be enabled to say,
"Lord I am Yours."
Every idol I utterly abolish. Save me, blessed Savior from
a deceitful heart and a seductive world. Let me see more and more the beauties
of holiness. Let me ever be basking in the rays of Your love—approaching
nearer and nearer You, the "Sun of my soul." May Your loveliness and glory
eclipse all created beams and may I look forward with bounding heart to that
time when all that helps to lighten up earth's pathway shall be obscured in
the shadow of death, and I shall be ushered into the glories of that better
and brighter scene, where "the sun shall no more go down, neither shall the
moon withdraw itself, but where the Lord my God shall be my everlasting
light."
And what I ask for myself, I desire in behalf of those near
and dear to me. "Sanctify them wholly." May they, too, crucify sin, and "die
daily." May this be the happy history of all of us—"Being made free from sin,
and having become the servants of God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and
the end everlasting life." Amen.
"Cause me to hear Your loving-kindness in the morning, for
in You do I trust."