Reading: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”—Psalm 51:10

Almighty God, who has mercifully preserved me during the unconscious hours of slumber, I desire to dedicate my waking moments and thoughts to thee. Pre-occupy my mind with hallowed and heavenly things. May I be enabled throughout this day, by the help of Your Holy Spirit, to exclude all that is vain and frivolous and sinful—and to have my affections centered on You, as my best portion and chief joy. As Your Spirit of old brooded over the face of the waters, may that same blessed Spirit descend in all the plenitude of His heavenly graces, that the gloom of a deeper moral chaos may be dispersed, and that mine may be the beauty and happiness and gladness of a soul that has been transformed “from darkness to light.”

Forbid, blessed Lord, that I should be resting in anything short of this new creation. May my old nature be crucified; and, as one alive from the dead, may I “walk with Jesus in newness of life.” May the new life infused by Your Spirit urge me to higher attainments and more heavenly aspirations. May I be enabled to see the world in its true light — its pleasures fading, its hopes delusive, its friendships perishable. May I be more solemnly and habitually impressed by the surpassing magnitude of “the things not seen.” May I give evidence of the reality of a renewal of heart by a more entire and consistent dedication of the life. May my soul become a temple of the Holy Spirit; may “Holiness to the Lord” be its superscription. May I be led to feel that there can be no true joy but what emanates from thyself, the fountain and fullness of all joy— the God in whom “all my well springs” are.