A Method for Prayer01 Matthew Henry (continued)
Andforgive us our trespasses as weforgive them that trespass against us. We pray that for Christ's sake you would freely pardon all our sins, and that by your grace you would enable us from the heart to forgive others.
Andleadus not into temptation butdeliver usfrom evil: Either keep us (O Lord) from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.
For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Lord, we take our encouragement in prayer from yourself only, and desire in our prayers to praise you, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to you: And in testimony of our desires and assurance to be heard through Jesus Christ, we say Amen.
3. ANOTHER PRAYER DRAWN OUT OF MY PLAIN CATECHISM FOR CHILDREN First published in the years 1703, this prayer will be easy to those children who have learned that catechism.
O Lord, you are an infinite and eternal Spirit, most wise and powerful, holy, just, and good.
You are the great God that made the world and are my Creator; and you that made me preserves and maintains me, and in you I live and move and have my being. O that I may remember you as my Creator in the days of my youth, and never forget you.
Lord, give me grace to serve and honor you, to worship and obey you, and in all my ways to trust in you and to please you.
Lord, I thank you for your holy word, which you have given me to be the rule of my faith and obedience, and which is able to make me wise unto salvation.
I confess, O Lord, that the condition I was born in is sinful and miserable.Iam naturally prone to that which is evil, and backward to that which is good, and foolishness is bound up in my heart; and I am by nature a child of wrath, so that ifyou had not raised up a Savior for me, I had been certainly lost and undone forever. I have been disobedient to the command of God and have eaten forbidden fruit.
But blessed and forever blessed be God for the Savior Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, and the only mediator between God and man, who took our nature upon him, and became man, that he might redeem and save us.
Lord, I bless you for his Holy life, give me to follow his steps; I bless you for the true and excellent doctrine which he preached, give me to mix faith with it; I bless you for the miracles which he wrought to confirm his doctrine: And especially that he died the cursed death of the cross to satisfy for sin, and to reconcile us to God; and that he rose again from the dead on the third day, and ascended up into heaven, where he ever lives making intercession for us, and hath all power both in heaven and in earth; and that we are assured he will come again in glory to judge the world at the last day.
Lord, I thank you thatI am one of his disciples; for Iam a baptized Christian; and I give glory to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name I was baptized.
Lord, be you in Christ to me a God, and make me one of your people.
Be you my chief good and highest end; let Jesus Christ be my Prince and Savior; and let the Holy Ghost be my sanctifier, teacher, guide, and comforter.
Lord, enable me to deny all ungodliness, and worldly fleshly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, always looking for the blessed hope.
Work in me repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ; and give me to live a life of faith and repentance.
Lord, make me truly sorry that I have offended you in what I have thought, and spoken, and done amiss, and give me grace to sin no more.
And enable me to receive Jesus Christ, and to rely upon him as my prophet, priest, and king, and to give up myself to be ruled, and taught, and saved by him.
Lord, grant unto me the pardon of my sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and eternal life.
And give me grace to manifest the sincerity of my faith and repentance by a diligent and conscientious obedience to all your commandments.
Enable me to love you with all my heart, and to love my neighbor as myself.
Give me grace always to make mention of your name with reverence and seriousness, to read and hearyourword with diligence and attention, to meditate upon it, to believe it, and to frame my life according to it.
Lord, grant that I may receive all your mercies with thankfulness and bear all afflictions with patience and submission to your holy will.
Lord, grant that my heart may never be lifted up with pride, disturbed with anger, or any sinful passion; and that my body may never be defiled with intemperance, uncleanness, or any fleshly lusts; and keep me from ever speaking any sinful words.
Lord, give me grace to reverence and obey my parents and governors; I thank you for their instructions and reproofs: I pray you bless them to me, and make me in everything a comfort to them.
Lord, pity, help, and succor the poor, and those in affliction and distress.
Lord, bless my friends, forgive my enemies, and enable me to do my duty to all men.
Wherein I have in anything offended you, I humbly pray for pardon in the blood of Christ, and grace to do my duty better for the time to come, and so to live in the fear of God, as that I may be happy in this world, and that to come.
Lord, prepare me to die, and leave this world; O save me from that state ofeverlasting misery and torment, which will certainly be the portion of all the wicked and ungodly, and bring me safe to the world of everlasting rest and joy with you and Jesus Christ.
And give me wisdom and grace to live a holygodly life, and to make it my great care and business to serve you, and to save my own soul.
All this I humbly beg in the name and for the sake of Jesus Christ, myblessed Savior and Redeemer, to whom with you, O Father, and the eternal Spirit, be honor, glory, and praise henceforth, and for evermore. Amen.
A MORNING PRAYER FOR A FAMILY O Lord, our God, we desire with all humility and reverence to adore you as a Being infinitely bright, and blessed, and glorious, that have all perfection in yourself, and are the fountain of all being, power, life, motion, and perfection.
You are good to all, and your tender mercies are over all your works; and you are continually doing us good, though we are evil and unthankful.
We reckon it an unspeakable privilege, that we have liberty of access to you through Jesus Christ, and leave to call you our Father in him. O look upon us now, and be merciful to us, as you used to do unto those that love your name.
O give us all to account our daily worship ofyou in our family, the most needful part of our daily business, and the most pleasant of our daily comforts.
You are the God of all the families of Israel, be you the God of our family, and grant that whatever others do, we and ours may always serve the Lord; that you mayest cause the blessing to rest on our house from the beginning of the year to the end of it. Lord, bless us, and we are blessed indeed.
We humbly thank you for all the mercies of this night past, and this morning, that we have laid us down and slept, and waked again, because you have sustained us; That no plague has come nigh our dwelling; but that we are brought in safety to the light and comforts of another day.
It is of your mercies, O Lord, that we are not consumed, even because your compassions fail not, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
We have rested and are refreshed, when many have been full of tossing to and fro till the dawning of the day: We have a safe and quiet habitation, when many are forced to wander and lie exposed.
We own your goodness to us, and ourselves we acknowledge less than the least of all the mercy, and of all the truth you have shewed unto us.
We confess we have sinned against you; we are guilty before you, we have sinned and have come short of the glory of God: We have corrupt and sinful natures and are bent to backslide from you, backward to good and prone to evil continually.
Vain thoughts come into us, and lodge within us, lying down and rising up, and they defile or disquiet our minds, and keep out good thoughts. We are too apt to burden ourselves with that care which you have encouraged us to cast upon you.
We are very much wanting in the duties of our particular relations and provoke one another more to folly and passion than to love and to good works. We are very cold and defective in our love to God, weak in our desires towards him, and unsteady and uneven in our walking with him; and are at this time much out of frame for his service.
We pray you forgive all our sins for Christ's sake and be at peace with us in him who died to make peace, and ever lives making intercession.
There are many that say, "Who will show us any good? but, Lord, let not us be put off with the good of this world for a portion: for this is our heart's desire and prayer, Lord, lift up the light of your countenance upon us, and that shall put gladness into our hearts more than they have whose corn and wine and oil increases.
Lord, let your peace rule in our hearts, and give law to us, and let your peace keep our hearts and minds, and give comfort to us; and let the consolations of God, which are neither few nor small, be our strength and our song in the house of our pilgrimage.
Lord, we commit ourselves to your care and keeping this day:
Watch over us for good; compass us about with your favor as with a shield; preserve us from all evil, yea, the Lord preserve and keep our souls; preserve our going out and coming in.
Our bodies and all our worldly affairs we commit to the conduct of your wise and gracious providence and submit to its disposal. Let no hurt or harm happen to us; keep us in health and safety; bless our employments, prosper us in all our lawful undertakings, and give us comfort and success in them. Let us eat the labor of our hands, and let it be well with us.
Our precious souls and all their concerns we commit to the government of your Spirit and grace. O let your grace be mightyin us, and sufficient for us, and let it work in us both to will and to do that which is good, of your own good pleasure.
O give us grace to do the work of this day in its day, according as the duty of the day requires, and to do even common actions after a godly sort; acknowledging you in all our ways, and having our eye ever up to you, and be you pleased to direct our steps.
Lord, keep us from sin; give us rule over our own spirits, and grant that we may not this day break out into passion upon any provocation, or speak unadvisedly with our lips: Give us grace to live together in peace and holy love, that the Lord may command the blessing upon us, even life for evermore.
Make us conscientious in all our dealings, and always watchful against sin, as becomes those who see your eye ever upon us: Arm us against every temptation, uphold us in our integrity, keep us in the way of our duty; and grant that we may be in your fear every day, and all the day long.
In every doubtful case let our way be made plain before us; and give us that wisdom of the prudent, which is at all times profitable to direct; and let integrity and uprightness preserve us, for we wait on you.
Sanctify to us all our losses, crosses, afflictions, and disappointments, and give us grace to submit to your holy will in them and let us find it good for us to be afflicted, that we may be partakers of your holiness.
Prepare us for all the events of this day, for we know not what a day may bring forth: Give us to stand complete in your whole will; to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow Jesus Christ.
Lord, fit us for death, and judgment, and eternity, and give us grace to live every day as those that do not know but it may be our last day.
Lord, plead your cause in the world; build up your church into perfect beauty; set up the throne of the exalted Redeemer in all places upon the ruins of the Devil's kingdom. Let the reformed churches be more and more reformed and let everything that is amiss be amended; and let those that suffer for righteousness' sake be supported and delivered.
Do us good in these nations; bless the queen and all in authority; guide public counsels and affairs; over-rule all to your own glory;