Morning Needs

O God, the Author of All Good,
I come to thee for the grace another day
will require for its duties and events.
I step out into a wicked world,
I carry with me an evil heart,
I know that without thee I can do nothing,
that everything with which I shall
be concerned,
however harmless in itself,
may prove an occasion of sin or folly,
unless I am kept by thy power.

Voyage

Help me live circumspectly,
with skill to convert every care to prayer

Spiritual Growth

May I never be satisfied with my present
spiritual progress,
but to faith add virtue, knowledge, temperance,
godliness, brotherly kindness, charity.

Faith and the world

In my duties give me firmness, energy, zeal,
devotion to thy cause,
courage in thy name,
love as a working grace,
and all commensurate with my trust.

Desires

May I never be importunate for temporal blessings,
but always refer them to the fatherly goodness,
for thou knowest what I need before I ask...

Choices

All my desires have not been gratified,
but thy love denied them to me
when fulfilment of my wished would have
proved my ruin or injury.

Weaknesses

Deliver me from carking [distressful] care,
and make me a happy, holy person;
Help me to walk the separated life with
firm and brace step,
and the wrestle successfully against weakness...

Conflict

May I discern the deadly viper [sin] in its malignity,
tear it with holy indignation from my breast,
resolutely turn its every snare,
refuse to hold polluting dalliance with it.

Need of Grace

O Lord,

Thou knowest my great unfitness for service,
my present deadness,
my inability to do anything for thy glory,
my distressing coldness of heart.

I am weak, ignorant, unprofitable,
and loathe to abhor myself.

I am at a loss to know what thou wouldest
have me to do,
for I am amazingly deserted by thee,
and sense thy presence so little;
Thou makest me possess the sins of my youth,
and the dreadful sin of my nature,
so that I feel all sin,
I cannot think or act but every motion is sin.

Return again with showers of converting grace
to a poor gospel abusing sinner.

Help my soul to breath after holiness,
after a constant devotedness to thee,
after growth in graced more abundantly every day.

O Lord, I am lost in the pursuit of this blessedness,
And I am ready to sink because I fall short of my desire;
Help me to hold out a little longer,
until the happy hour of goodness bring me not nigh.

Help me to be diffident, watchful, tender,
lest I offend my blessed Friend
in thought and behaviour;
I confide in thee and lean upon thee
and need thee at all times to assist and lead me.

O that all my distresses and apprehensions
might prove but Christ's school
to make me fir for greater service
by teaching me the great lesson of humility.

New Year

O Lord,

Length of days does not profit me
except in thy service, to thy glory....

May thy fear be my awe,
thy triumphs my joy.

Contentment

Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows,
temptations,
if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil,
and be delivered from it with gratitude to thee,
acknowledging this as the highest testimony of they love.