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A Prayer for Sunday Morning

  • Dr. Ray Pritchard
    Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, an Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 29 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain,… More
  • Published May 30, 2004

A Prayer for Sunday Morning

Here are excerpts of a prayer by Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910), one of Great Britain's most famous preachers. A contemporary of Charles Spurgeon, MacLaren pastored Union Chapel in Manchester for many years. His multi-volume Bible expositions are still in print almost a century after his death. This is a wonderful prayer to prepare your heart for Sunday worship.

O Lord, our Almighty Father, we thank Thee that Thou has made bare Thine holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and that all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. And we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst help us to welcome Thy mighty deliverance and Thy great delivering Son. Into all our hearts may He come in His redeeming and quickening power, lifting us up from the miry clay and the horrible pit, setting our feet upon the rock, establishing our goings and putting a new song of grace into our hearts.

O Lord, look upon us as we are here before Thee today. We gather ourselves together, dependent upon Thee, and in some measure we hope, feeling our dependence. We come from the cares and the duties of another day; the world has had much of our thoughts, and the common tasks that we have all to do have absorbed much of our attention and strength; and we would thankfully shake from our feet the dust of the world now, and turn wearied and worn hearts and minds to the stillness and joy at Thy right hand.  May we bow before Thee and drink deeply and gladly of Thy great Name; may we find in it our refuge and our solace. May the thought of God always be as the sunshine and the spring to us.

We beseech Thee that Thou wouldst bless us gathered here before Thee now; give us some teaching from Thyself, some fresh gleam of light from Thy presence to shine upon Thy Word. May it become more clear and easy to us, may Thy strength become more and more our guide and counselor, may our souls be lifted above the low things of life, and all that is good in us be encouraged and strengthened by our gathering together, and by our worship.

O Lord, bless the preaching of Thy word amongst us; grant that it may have power to gather in souls to the fold of Jesus Christ, that it may have power to build up those who love Him in their faith and love.

We pray, O Lord, that Thou wouldst accept us now, be merciful to us as we wait before Thee, pardon all sin in our approach to Thee, and help us, notwithstanding our imperfect and feeble supplications, and all the errors and incompleteness of our faith and our desire; and answer us, we pray Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Email: raypritchard@calvarymemorial.com.


 


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