O Sovereign Lord,
Your Will is supreme in heaven and earth,
All things are orchestrated by your hands
All beings are created by just the whisper of your voice.
You are the author of our lives;
Your instruction gives us understanding,
Your providence governs our steps.
O Loving God,
We are sinners in your sight;
You have made this clear to us and if we deny it we make you out to be a liar.
Yet in Christ You have graciously reconciled yourself to your rebellious people;
You love us despite our lack of love
You care for us despite our lack of care
You lead us to flourish despite our desire to cast ourselves into ruin.
O Gracious God,
We are wretched and unable to change our steps toward destruction.
Give us the ears of faith to hear Christ,
Give us the eyes of faith to see Christ,
Give us the appetite of faith to feed on Christ;
That we might find in him music, light, nourishment, and all other graces that produce eternal joy.
You are the inviting one – – – may we listen to you;
You are the almighty instructor – – – teach us to live to you;
You are the light-dweller – – – inaccessible to man and angels,
Hiding Yourself behind the elements of creation,
But known to us in Jesus.
Possess our minds with the grandeur of Your perfections.
Your Love to us in Jesus is firm and changeless,
Nothing can separate us from it,
And in the enjoyment of it nothing can make us miserable.
Our Hearts are Prone to:
Evil,
vanity,
forwardness,
insensibility,
disorderly affection,
and backwardness to duty,
So then,
Preserve us from hypocrisy and dead formality in our worship;
Enable us to remember what you are what we are,
Enable us to recall your holiness and our unworthiness;
Help us to approach you, clothed with humility,
Let us never forget your patience, wisdom, power, faithfulness, care,
And never let us cease to respond to Your gospel invitations.
