My Father and my God,
I bow before You this morning through the Lord Jesus Christ, He is my righteousness, and by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, He is my Sanctifier. “How lovely is your Tabernacle, O Lord of host!” (Psalm 84:1). “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalm 84:10).
O my God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it is in You that “I live and move and have my being” (Acts 17:28). You have made all things in heaven and on earth for Your glory and praise. You have also made them in secondary importance for the good of Your church, Your redeemed in Jesus Christ. To You I give all glory, honor, praise, adoration, exaltation, thanksgiving, reverence, obedience, and worship. Cause me to do all these things more diligently, zealously, faithfully, joyfully, lovingly, and prayerfully.
O Father, You are holy; I am sinful.
You are righteous; I am practically unrighteous.
You are wisdom; I am foolish.
You are almighty; I am weak.
You are all-knowing; I am ignorant.
You are eternal; I am finite.
You are transcendent; I am temporal, confined to a locality.
You are pure Spirit; I am flesh.
You are compassionate; I am so often uncaring.
You are love; I am often unloving.
My heart is in constant need of change and progression in holiness, in Christ-likeness. I am easily distracted, easily tempted, easily led astray. Too often I am emotional rather than rational. Uphold me, dear Lord Jesus, with Your strong arm! Don’t let me stray from You. Don’t let my heart grow cold. Light the fire within my heart, O Lord. Revive me for Your glory’s sake. Use me, teach me, guide me, uphold me, fill me with Your Power and Presence.
Forgive me, O Father, for my wretched sins of thought, word, and deed. Forgive me for “the lust of my flesh, the lust of my eyes, and the pride of my life—which is not of You but is of the world” (1 John 2:16), and forgive me for the sake of Christ’s person and work! He lived in my place and has fulfilled all the righteous demands of the Law on my behalf. He bore my punishment on the cross so that I would never be condemned. Christ has merited righteousness and forgiveness for me. You forgive me because of Who Christ is and what He has done, and not because of something in me. Of myself, I have nothing but sin and corruption. But in Christ I am declared righteous and holy. Oh what marvelous grace of God that He would give His only Son to make a wretch like me His treasure! As the hymn writer, Robert Robinson, once wrote, “O to grace how great a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be! Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.”
O my Father, I do love You because You first loved me (1 John 4:19) and shed Your love abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). But I know my love is far from perfect. My love is weak, sinful, frail, and fragile. Therefore, cause me to love you with greater intensity and obedience and passion and service. Keep me confessing my sins to you since when I confess you are faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Holy Spirit, keep me in Your Word. Fill me with Your Word. Fill me, Holy Spirit. Don’t let me drift. Don’t let me grieve You. Don’t let me sin against You. Empower me for Your blessed service. Keep me walking on the straight and narrow path! Cause me to decrease so that Christ will increase in me so that I might declare and live the words of Scripture, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Bring my thoughts, all my thoughts, captive to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do this for Your glory, use me for Your praise. For I am not my own, but I belong to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, both in my body and my soul, both in my life and in my death, I am His and He is mine!
O Lord my God, here am I, send me!
In Jesus’ blessed name I pray!
Amen!