PRAYERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT -- PART 4

Elohim Spirit, by whose aid the world’s foundations first were laid, come, visit every pious mind; come, pour Your joy on humankind. From sin and sorrow set us free and make us, Your temples, worthy be. Refine and purge our earthly parts, but oh, inflame and fire our hearts! Our weakness help, our vice control. Submit the senses to the soul. And when rebellious they have grown, then extend Your hand and hold them down. Immortal honour, endless fame, attend the Almighty Father’s Name. The Saviour Son be glorified, who for lost man redemption has died. Endless adoration and praise to You, O Spirit, we now raise. (Acts 2).

Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved You. For behold You were within me, and I outside; and I sought You outside and in my un-loveliness fell upon those lovely things that You have made. You were with me and I was not with You. I was kept from You by those things, yet had they not been in You, they would not have been at all. You called and cried to me to break open my deafness; and You sent forth Your light to shine upon me and chase away my blindness. You breathed fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and do now pant for You; I tasted You and now hunger and thirst for You. You touched me, and I have burned for Your peace. (Acts 9).

With all my heart and soul, O YAHVEH, I thank You, that in all the changes of this mortal life, I can look up to You and cheerfully resign my will to Yours. I have trusted You, O Father, with myself. My soul is in Your hand, and I believe You will preserve me from all evil. My body and all that belongs to it are of much less value. With security and satisfaction, I trust all I have to You. (Acts 16).

O Hope of all Holy and humble persons, the Saviour of them that trust in You in time of trouble, does not allow us to remain as captives in spiritual chains. Redeem us so that we would awake to do Your will. Adonai, You know our desires, and our secret sighing is not hidden from You. Into Your hands I commend my spirit and my prayer. Grant to us as You see fit, and make us fit for what You grant us. Give us wisdom to abound or patience to suffer need. Help us to be content where our Master has placed us. Let all our work be done well before our hour of death. Then let us be gathered into Your arms, just as the harvesters gather the crop at the appointed season. (Acts 26).

Adonai, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love, Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled, as to console, to be understood, as to understand, to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. (Romans 6).

O, dear Saviour, be not impatient with us, but still school us at Your feet, till at last we shall have learned some of the sublime lessons of self-sacrifice, of meekness, humility, fervour, boldness, and love, which Your life is fit to teach us. O Adonai, we beg you, moulds us into Your Own image. Let us live in You and live like You. (Romans 12).