05.12. TWELFTH WEEK
TWELFTH WEEK
SUNDAY MORNING
We would sing of Your mercies, O Lord. We would make known Your faithfulness. You are the same yesterday, and today, yes, and forever. You never change. Your word is settled forever. Not a jot or a tittle of it can ever fail. The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed — but Your kindness shall not depart from us, nor the covenant of Your peace be removed forever.
O Lord God Almighty, who is a strong Lord like unto You! Your faithfulness surrounds You. You rule the raging of the sea. When the waves thereof arise — You still them. The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; as for the world with the fullness thereof — You have founded it. You have a mighty arm; strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand. Justice and judgment are the foundation of Your throne; mercy and truth shall go before You.
We thank You, O God, that on this holy day we can rest so confidently on Your eternal faithfulness. May the gospel wherever preached today, reveal to needy hearts Your love and truth. May Your servants sent forth with the messages of Your love, be faithful in representing You. Let a blessing rest on our pastor, as he preaches Your word, and leads us in Your worship. May he be full of the Holy Spirit. May he come from Your very presence, and may the light shine in his face as it shone on the face of Moses when he had been with You for forty days in the mount. Prepare us and all Your people for the worship of the sanctuary. Bless all Sunday schools and all meetings of whatever kind held today for Your worship. May this be a day full of Jesus and of power. And may the grace of Jesus be upon us all forever. Amen.
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SUNDAY EVENING
Lord, You have been gracious to us. You have blessed us. This evening we mingle our voices in praise to You for Your goodness. Your love is everlasting. Your grace is never-failing. Your faithfulness is eternal. You never weary in blessing us.
We thank You for all the privileges of this holy day. Sanctify to us, the worship in which we have engaged, at home, and with Your people in the sanctuary. May our meditation on Your word enrich us and build up in us the beautiful things of Your grace. May the prayers we have offered, be answered in Your loving fullness. May the glimpses of Your love and glory we have had today, be inspirations in our souls in the days to come, making us long for the things that are heavenly. May the songs of the day, sing in our hearts all the week. May we have grace to follow the instructions we have received from Your word, so that our lives may be holier. Help us to put away the faults which have been disclosed in us as we have looked into Your word and have thought seriously of ourselves. Help us to put on the beautiful things which have been pointed out to us. So may Sunday be blessed to us, and may its lessons be wrought out in our lives. May Your Spirit follow all the work of Your church this day, blessing all the preaching and teaching of Your word, and all efforts put forth by missionaries everywhere to make known the name of Jesus Christ. May Your kingdom come. May its power in men’s hearts and lives, become more and more complete. Grant us now a blessing as we go to our beds for the night. Spread over us Your shelter of love. And may grace, mercy, and peace be upon us forever. Amen.
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MONDAY MORNING
O God, our Father, we praise Your name; we extol You; we worship You! You are great, and greatly to be praised; Your greatness is unsearchable! One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. We would speak of the glorious honor of Your majesty, and of Your wondrous works. We would make known Your mercy.
You, Lord, are gracious, and full of compassion — slow to anger and of great mercy. You are good to all — Your tender mercies are over all Your works. All Your works shall praise You, and Your saints shall bless You. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. You uphold Your children who fall, and raise up all those who are bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. You are near unto all who call upon You — to all that call upon You in truth. You will fulfill the desire of those who fear You; You also will hear their cry and will save them. You preserve all those who love You.
We thank You that we may have such assured confidence in You. May we have grace to live before the world, so as to prove our sincerity. Help us to keep the vows we made on Sunday when we went to Your sanctuary. May our week-day life be as good as our Sunday promises. The spirit is willing — we desire to live worthily; but the flesh is weak. The things that we desire to do — we do not. Strengthen all good purposes in our hearts, and may we be enabled to live righteously in the world. We ask all, with the forgiveness of our sins, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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MONDAY EVENING
O Lamb of God, have mercy upon us. You who sit at the right hand of God, and will come in glory to judge the world — have mercy upon us and forgive our sins. We praise You, O Jesus, for Your wonderful condescension, for the priceless sacrifice made by You in accomplishing our redemption, and for the blessed salvation which You have obtained for us. May all that is within us be aroused to praise You.
We bow before Your cross, and we remember again what our redemption cost You. We remember Your years of patient humiliation, when You walked this earth, homeless and a wayfarer, with nowhere to lay Your head — that we might have a home in Heaven. We remember Your sufferings at the hands of enemies — that we might have the friendship of God. We remember Your agony in Gethsemane, Your bloody sweat — that we might have quiet peace when we come to die. We remember Your cross, with the unutterable sufferings endured there — that our sins might be forgiven and that we might have eternal redemption through Your blood. We remember Your burial and Your resting in the dark grave — that the grave might no longer have its terrors for us, because You have lain in it.
We remember, too, Your glorious resurrection — that we might have a living Savior, and that we too might have the hope of resurrection and eternal life. We remember Your ascension to the right hand of God, that we might have a Friend in Heaven to intercede for us and plan for our lives. May these blessed truths be very real to us, and we will praise You forever. Amen.
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TUESDAY MORNING
Graciously come to us this morning, O God, and bless us. We deserve no favor at Your hand — but You are a God of mercy. Out of the depths, we have cried unto You. Lord, hear our cry, and let Your ear be attentive to the voice of our supplication. If You should mark iniquities against us — we could not stand before You, for we have sinned in manifold ways. But there is forgiveness with You — that You may be feared. We wait for Your mercy, for with You there is redemption.
You have a purpose for each one of our lives today, something You would have us to do. May You make it plain to each of us as we go out, and go through the hours, what it is You have in Your plan for us. We would do Your will and not our own all the day. Show us what You will have us to do. Teach us to do Your commandments. Let us not follow the foolish counsels and devices of our own hearts. Let us not lean unto our own understanding. Incline our hearts to follow You, and to walk in the way of Your commandments. So may we please You and glorify Your name.
We desire to be blessings in the world, and we ask You for grace to show to all who see us, Your beauty in our own lives. Fill us with Your Spirit and then Your life shall shine in us. May the joy of Jesus be in our hearts. Help us to be comforters to those who are in sorrow. May we be enabled to help others with the burdens that are too heavy for them. Teach us how to sympathize with those who are suffering. Help us to be winners of souls. Bless our home, and keep us while absent one from the other, bringing us all together in the evening. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with us. Amen.
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TUESDAY EVENING
Father, let Your face shine upon our home tonight. We thank You for it. May it be . . .
a shelter to us from the world’s storms,
a nest of love,
a school where we may learn love’s lessons, and
where we may grow into the beauty of Christlikeness.
We pray continually that our home may become more and more like Heaven. Teach all of us how to live, so as to add to its sweetness.
Come and be a guest in our home. Then its love will become sweeter and more and more holy. For Your presence gives light, blessing, and joy. Make our home, Your home. Dwell with us. Then we shall be happy. Then we shall live beautifully.
Bless the children. We thank You for childhood, with its simplicity, and its glad joyousness. Let Your grace be upon all our children, and give them Your sweet love, to keep their hearts unspoiled. Bless all mothers into whose hands little children come first to be taught and trained. May their own lives be pure with the purity of Jesus. Let no mother’s heart be impure, or her hands defiled — while she is training her children for You. Bless all teachers of little children, giving them skill to do their work faithfully, so that they shall not be ashamed when they meet them at the judgment bar.
Let a blessing rest upon schools where children are trained for life. Make the teachers wise and faithful. Bless all academies, colleges, and schools of every grade. Give to teachers power to teach well. Bless all books, papers, and literature prepared for the children and young people. So may the children of the world be saved. We ask all this in the name of Jesus Christ, the children’s Friend. Amen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ WEDNESDAY MORNING
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, look upon us graciously as we wait at Your feet. Receive our thanks for the goodness of another night, and accept this consecration of our lives to You for another day. We are Your own children, and we will trust You for all that our lives need. We will strive to obey You. We shall need Your grace in order to do Your will — and we ask You to give us grace that we may be faithful and dutiful children.
Enable us to do our simplest tasks for You as carefully as if they were the largest and most sacred ministries that mortal is ever set to do. May we find our Father’s business . . .
in our household work,
in our school duties,
in our play and recreation,
in the affairs of our common occupations. May we learn to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus and for Him.
All around us are those who need kindnesses which we can render. May You give us so much of the Spirit of Jesus, that we shall go about doing good all the day. Even while engaged at our ordinary work, may we be so filled with divine love, that we shall give help and cheer to all we meet by our cheerful manner, by our encouraging words, and by our thoughtful kindnesses. May our wayside ministry, as we move along at our work, be a ministry of continual blessing.
Draw us now near to You, and give us the touch of Your hand before we go out. If we should never all come together again as a family, if death should call any of us home before the nightfall, let us not be separated in the heavenly home. Let us not fall by the way, into any sin. Mercifully preserve us from all evil. And may grace, mercy, and peace be with us all forever. Amen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ WEDNESDAY EVENING Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. May Your kingdom come. May Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
You have told us by the lips of Him who spoke as never any man spoke, that if we forgive men their trespasses — then You will also forgive us; but that if we forgive not men their trespasses — then neither will You forgive us our trespasses. It is not easy for us to forgive those who have done us hurt. We ofttimes cherish bitter feelings and are not willing to put them out of our hearts. Yet, our Father, we want to be like You, and we are not like You if we are unforgiving. You forgive us not once only — but endlessly. You forgive altogether, putting our sins behind Your back, remembering them no more forever, receiving Your pardoned children back into favor, as if they never had sinned, and restoring them to all that they have lost by their wandering.
Father, teach us the lesson of forgiveness. If others have trespassed against us — help us to forgive them. If they have trespassed against us seven times — help us to forgive seven times, seventy times seven times. Help us to forgive as You do — fully, freely, taking the offending friend back to our heart again, loving unto the uttermost. We desire to obey this teaching. You know how hard it is to do it. Help us, gracious Lord. Soften our spirits and humble us, until we can say from our hearts, "Forgive us our trespasses — as we forgive those who trespass against us." For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ THURSDAY MORNING Our Father who are in Heaven, hallowed be Your name. Teach us how to hallow Your name. Show us how holy it is, and how sacred. Even the angels in Heaven speak it in reverent breath. It shines like the sun in its glory. All Your attributes are manifested in Your name. All that You are, is in Your name. All the glory of the universe which You have made — is less glorious than is Your name, for You are greater than all Your works.
Hallowed be Your name. Help us to hallow it in our own souls, to hold it as sacred. Teach us to reverence You. Give us a glimpse of Your holy glory, that we may know how to adore Your name in our hearts. Then teach us how to hallow Your name in all our life. May we hallow it in our speech. Let us never speak Your name without love and reverence. May its every mention fill our hearts with holy thoughts of You. We are Your children and we bear Your name. Teach us how to live, so that we shall hallow Your name in ourselves. Let us never dishonor You, by living in any way unworthy of You. May we be holy, as You are holy. May we in our speech, in our conduct, in You whose name we bear. May our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works and glorify You, our Father in Heaven.
Then may we have grace to do much in the world to bring honor and glory to Your name. Help us to win others to You, so that in their lives Your name may be hallowed. We are little in Your sight and cannot do much; but may we be enabled, in our own place and manner, to honor You, and to help to bring all the world to say, "Hallowed be Your name." We ask in Jesus Christ. Amen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ THURSDAY EVENING In the quiet of the eventide, we come to You, our Father, for Your blessing. We are weary, tonight, after the day’s toils and cares, and come to You for rest. You have promised rest to those who come to You. Things have not all gone today as we had hoped they would. We intended to be very good and faithful — but while the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak — and we failed many times. Father, forgive us for these failures, and save us from repeating them.
Many of our expectations were not realized. We had our disappointments. Some of our plans failed. We leave these broken things with You. It was Your will that they should be broken, because they were not Your plans. Our ways were not Your ways — but Your ways are wiser and better than ours. So we leave all with You, praying that Your plan for us may go on in all our broken plans, and that all things may indeed work together for our good.
We pray again for this dear home of ours — we must always pray for it. It needs Your grace afresh every day, that it may be kept heaven-like in this world of sin. Purify all our home affections. May all things serve to bring us nearer together and to bind us closer to each other. May our common toils and cares and sorrows — become new bands of love to hold us heart to heart in mutual love. May we never fail in patience, nor in unselfishness, nor in thoughtfulness. Give us the spirit of self-effacement, if we are called to make personal sacrifices in order that our home may be blessed. Pour into our hearts the spirit of love and grace, that we may be mutually helpful, and then our home shall be happy. We ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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FRIDAY MORNING
O Jesus, the source and fountain of all life — we come to You this morning for new life, new supplies of life, to prepare us for living another day. Our lamps are going out, and need to be refilled by You from Your fullness, that they may burn and shine in this dark world. Our hearts’ love is exhausted by the continual drafts upon it in living our life, and it needs renewal from Your heart. Our strength is used up through toil and struggle, and we need new supplies.
We come to You, O Jesus, for You are the Life, and we have the promise that of Your fullness we shall receive, and grace upon grace. May You give us life. You came into the world that we might have life, and might have it abundantly. Your own heart was broken on the cross and its life was emptied upon the earth, that it might become our life and throb in our hearts. Jesus Christ, our Savior, fill us with Your own life — and then we shall live indeed.
We ask for all the life we need to enable us to be Your true children, and faithful followers of You. We have no life of our own. May You live in us, and then we shall indeed show the world a revealing of You. Then Your joy shall be in our hearts — Your peace, Your rest, Your very life. Then shall we be indeed branches of the vine, bearing fruit, bending low with abundance of fruit. Then we shall be like You, that wherever we are, men may see You in us, and may glorify You. Give us, therefore, of the fullness of Your life, and then we can give to all we meet. We ask these favors in Your name, O Lamb of God. Amen.
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FRIDAY EVENING
We thank You, Father, for the revealing to us of the sweetness and gentleness of Your love. No mother’s bosom is so warm a shelter for her baby — as is Your bosom for Your redeemed children. No holiest earthly home is so secure a shelter for its favored inhabitants — as You are to those who find their home in You. We have gathered into our home tonight, after the day’s cares, toils, and conflicts; so we would gather now also into the shelter of Your love and hide ourselves in You. There is no other hiding-place.
Please forgive all the sins of this day. At this evening-time, grant to us Your peace. All that we have done, may You take and bless and use. We tried to do good to others as we went on our way. Our attempts were not all beautiful — but may You use even our poor efforts to help and bless others. If Your grace is in them, our humblest deeds are full of helpfulness. Teach us to be content with the things we have. Save us from murmuring and complaining at the trials and frets of life. We are easily disheartened. We are impatient of hindrance and restraint, and when things do not go as we would have them go — we often grow fretful, and are heard finding fault and complaining.
Forgive us this complaining spirit, and teach us to take what comes to us in Your providence quietly, cheerfully, and prayerfully — bearing patiently with inconvenience and disappointment, so that Your name may be honored. Give us sweetness of spirit, give us calm and thoughtful hearts, from every murmur free; the blessing of Your grace impart, and may we live for You. So may the sweetness of Your own life come into our hearts, until we are transformed into Your own likeness. We ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ SATURDAY MORNING May this new morning bring us into new fellowship with You, our gracious heavenly Father. May the light of Your love be newly revealed in our hearts. May Your grace be poured upon us like sunshine out of Heaven. May we have a glimpse of that fullness of life, which awaits us in the eternal world, the heavenly home — so that our hearts may be drawn towards it.
We thank You that Heaven begins here on earth, that when we receive Jesus as our Master, we have everlasting life. Help us to enter every day more deeply into life. May we be filled with all Your fullness, even in this world. Abide in us, and may we abide in You. May Your love be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
We ask You for grace to witness for Jesus today wherever we go. In our home life, may we witness to each other of the power of Jesus to make us loving, gentle, and affectionate. In our day’s occupations, may we witness for Jesus to all who see us, by our diligence and faithfulness, and by our unselfish ministries. In our friendships, may we witness for Jesus by our thoughtfulness, constancy, and sincerity, and by our unselfish sympathy, kindness, and helpfulness. In all our life, may we be witnesses for Jesus, and may the beauty of the Lord be revealed in our lives.
We speak our prayer to You this morning for all whose duties lead them into places of danger. We pray for those who go upon the sea that they may be kept from danger; for those who are upon railway trains, for those who work in mines, and for all whose occupations are full of peril. We pray for our neighbors and friends, for the poor, the sick, and the dying. Grant these requests for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ SATURDAY EVENING The week is closing, and we come to You, O Father, in its last evening prayer, to commit ourselves to You. Bless all Sundays which have passed away forever from our hands. Use the work we have done. Impress in our hearts the lessons taught us by the experiences of this week. Let us not lose them, nor forget them. May our lives be richer ever after because of them. May we put into practice, what we have learned.
Bless to us the teachings of Your holy word which have come to us during this week in our daily readings. May we keep them ever in our hearts, and may they be profitable to us in the shaping and beautifying of our characters. Bless also the influence of our lives on others. Those who have seen us have noted how we live. Our words have been spoken into the air — but they have fallen upon ears and into hearts, and their influence abides. Our example, too, has had its effect. May You bless all this influence. Forbid that any evil effect shall follow any act of ours — but may all who have seen us, carry good influences in their lives from ours. May we, too, in turn, carry good from the true and beautiful lives which we have seen, receiving blessing from them which shall make us stronger and holier in all days to come. Make us more and more a blessing to others.
We now go to our rest. Bless us, our Father. Enfold us in Your everlasting arms, and hold us apart from the world and far away from its perils. Forgive us every sin. Wash us in the blood of Jesus. Grant to us abundance of Your spirit. Give us rest in sleep. Prepare us for a good Sunday, and may we rise with hearts eager to see You. Hear us, and receive our prayers, we ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
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