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How do you begin your day? I hope you have made it a regular practice to begin your day with prayer, with time in God’s presence, so that your mind and heart are prepared to face the day with God’s perspective and power.
I want to share with you some morning prayers, and I’m taking these from a wonderful devotional classic entitled A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie. It is one of my favorite little books, containing prayers for morning and evening for a month. The words are a bit antiquated, but the meaning is timeless, so I want to share some of these morning prayers with you.
Dr. Baillie writes: “O God my Creator and Redeemer, I may not go forth today except Thou doest accompany me with Thy blessings. Let not the vigour and freshness of the morning, or the glow of good health, or the present prosperity of my undertakings, deceive me into a false reliance upon my own strength.” (Page 13)
Did you ever think that success and prosperity could cause you more trouble than failures or hard times? When everything is going well and you’re getting good feedback; when people seem to be pleased with you and what you do and your relationships are on a good footing; when your bodies are feeling good and you’re running on all cylinders—then it is so easy to think that you can make it on your own.
It is a subtle deception that begins to creep into our thinking. We don’t realize we’re relying on ourselves, but it happens. So, today, if things are going good for you, be thankful and enjoy it. But please don’t forget that it’s a gift from God and not your own doing.
As this morning prayer goes on to say: “Let me then put back into Thine hand all that Thou has given me, rededicating to Thy service all the powers of my mind and body, all my worldly goods, all my influence with other men. All these, O Father, are Thine to use as Thou wilt. Speak Thou in my words today, think in my thoughts, and work in all my deeds. Amen.”
This is a really good morning prayer, and whether it’s morning for you right now or not, I hope you’ll stop and take time to pray this prayer for yourself.
