Compassionate Lord, Your mercies have brought me to the dawn of another day. Vain will be its gift unless I grow in grace, increase in knowledge, ripen for spiritual harvest. Let me this day know You as You are, love You supremely, serve You wholly, admire You fully. Through grace let my will respond to You, knowing that power to obey is not in me, but that Your free love alone enables me to serve You. Here then is my empty heart, overflow it with Your choicest gifts; here is my blind understanding, chase away its mists of ignorance.
O ever watchful Shepherd, lead, guide, tend me this day; without Your restraining rod I err and stray. Hedge up my path lest I wander into unwholesome pleasure, and drink its poisonous streams; direct my feet that I be not entangled in Satan’s secret snares, nor fall into his hidden traps. Defend me from assailing foes, from evil circumstances, from myself. My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature; they cling to me as my very skin; I cannot escape their contact. In my rising up and sitting down they barnacle me; they entice with constant baits; my enemy is within the citadel. Come with almighty power and cast him out, pierce him to death, and abolish in me every particle of carnal life this day.
Author Unknown
This is a Puritan prayer of which the author is unknown, but I thought it would be a great part of todays devotion. Bible camp has not allowed for my daily devotionals this past two weeks, so this is a wonderful prayer to start the week with. I am grateful that our Lord is here to watch over us, to strengthen us, to guide and lead us, when we call out to Him. The depth of this prayer is amazing, and comes from the lips of someone who knows their God deeply.
PRAISE the LORD! I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation.