Reading: “He … giveth grace to the humble.” —1 Peter 5:5
Lord, I come to You today. Full of my own unworthiness, I turn to the infinitely worthy One. I seek to be washed in His blood, sanctified by His Spirit, guided by His counsel, depending on Him for every supply of grace, and feeling that without Him I must perish.
May I take the humility and gentleness of Jesus as my pattern. Like Him, may I be meek and lowly in heart. Give me grace to avoid ostentation and pride, haughtiness and vanity, envy and uncharitableness. “In lowliness of mind may I esteem others better than myself.” Let me realize every moment that I am a pensioner on divine bounty, that I am for temporal things and spiritual dependent on You, and that it well becomes me to be “clothed with humility.” Oh, let me meekly and submissively lose my own will in Yours, in childlike teachableness, saying, “What will You have me to do?” May this lowliness of spirit lead me rather to wonder at Your sparing mercy, that the great and holy being I have provoked so long by my rebellion has not “cut me down.”
Bless all connected to me by endearing bonds. May nature’s ties be made doubly strong by those of covenant grace. Bless Your cause and kingdom in the world. May Your Spirit descend “like rain upon the mown grass.”
I commit myself to You and to the word of Your grace. Guide me this day by Your counsel. May I spend it as if it were to be my last. And when my last day does arrive, may it be to me the eve of a happy eternity. And all I ask is for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.
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