Monday, October 11, 2010

"Evening Renewal"

My Father,
If Thy mercy had bounds, where would be my refuge from just wrath?
But Thy love in Christ is without measure.
Thus, I present myself to thee
      with sins of commission and omission,
              against Thee, my Father,
              against Thee, adorable redeemer,
              against Thee and Thy strivings, O Holy Spirit,
              against the dictates of my conscience,
              against the precepts of Thy Word,
              against my neighbours and myself.
Enter not into judgement with me,
For I plead no righteousness of my own,
    and have no cloak for iniquity.
Pardon my day dark with evil.
This night I renew my penitence.
Every morning I vow to love Thee more fervently,
                       to serve Thee more sincerely,
                       to be more devoted in my life,
                       to be wholly Thine;
Yet I soon stumble, backslide,
      and have to confess my weakness, misery and sin.
But I bless Thee that the finished work of Jesus needs no addition
                                                  from my doings,
                              that His oblation is sufficient satisfaction
                                                  for my sins.
If future days be mine, help me to amend my life,
                                                   to hate and abhor evil,
                                                   to flee the sins I confess.
Make me more resolute, more watchful, more prayerful.
Let no evil fruit spring from evil seeds my hands have sown;
Let no neighbour be hardened in vanity and folly
                  by my want of circumspecion.
If this day I have been ashamed of Christ and His Word,
                   or have shown unkindness, malice, envy, lack of love,
                   unadvised speech, hasty temper,
                   let it be no stumbling block to others,
                   or dishonour to Thy name.
O help me to set an upright example that will ever rebuke vice,
                   allure to goodness,
                    and evidence that lovely are the ways of Christ.

--From "The Valley of Vision -- a collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions -- by Arthur Bennett"

--- I would replace "If this day" with "Since this day"

3 comments:

The Foggy Knitter said...

Awesome! Amen!

The Foggy Knitter said...

Oh... I've commented on this. I thought I hadn't read your blog here before. Now I'm confusing myself!

But I do agree with myself, that is an awesome and beautiful prayer, I especially love the last line.

Beckie said...

Apologies, I most likely caused the confusion - I changed the name and the design of the blog, and deleted some old posts. "Blog housekeeping" so to speak. Hence the likely confusion!