Reading: “I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.”—Exodus 31:13

Dear heavenly Father, may it be mine to know, in growing experience, the happiness of true holiness. May I jealously avoid all that is likely to estrange me from You, and zealously cultivate all that is calculated to draw me nearer towards You. “Your favor is life”—O show me that to lose Your favor is death indeed!

This blessed work of inward sanctification is Yours. Alas! I feel my constant proneness to wander from You and to seek my happiness in that which is perishable. My best resolutions, how frail! My warmest affections, how languid and lukewarm! My holiest moments, how distracted with vain thoughts and worldly cares! But strengthen me with all might, by Your Spirit, in the inner man. My daily cry would be, “More grace! more grace!” There is no sufficiency in myself; but have You not promised to make Your grace sufficient? May I make it my grand ambition to be marking, day by day, my Zion-ward progress—conformity to a holy God.

For this end, overrule all the dispensations of Your providence. May I hear a voice in each of them proclaiming, “Be holy.” May I be led to bear and rejoice in them all, if they can be the means of bringing me nearer Yourself. And may the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the communion and fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with me now and ever. Amen.