Sweet Spots

One of the greatest prayers ever written in the history of the church as printed in the Prayer Book of 1552. It is known as “The General Confession,” and in the Church of England it has been said twice a day at morning and night for most of its existence. Whole books have been written on this one prayer, so significant is its importance in Christianity. Here is it in two versions: an original version and a more vernacular version.

“Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; An d there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou them, O God, which confess their faults. Restore thou them that are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous and sober life. To the Glory of thy holy Name. Amen.”

“Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, and strayed from your ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against your holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us. But you, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare those, O God who confess their faults. Restore those who are penitent; According to your promises declared to humanity in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous and sober life. To the Glory of your holy Name. Amen.

A PRAYER FOR HOLINESS

Our Father, we worship and love You; and it is one point of our worship that You are holy. Time was when we loved You for Your mercy; we knew no more;

but now You have changed our hearts and made us in love with goodness, purity, justice, true holiness; and we understand now why “the cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts,”

We adore You because You are holy, and we love You for Your infinite perfection. For now we sigh and cry after holiness ourselves. Sanctify us wholly, spirit, soul and body.

Lord, we mourn over the sins of our past life and our present shortcomings. We bless You — You have forgiven us; we are reconciled to You by the death of Your Son.

There are many who know that they have been washed, and that He that bears away sin has borne their sin away. These are they who now cry to You to be delivered from the power of sin, to be delivered from the power of temptation without, but especially from indwelling sin within.

Lord, purify us in head, heart and hand; and if it be needful that we should be put into the fire to be refined as silver is refined, we would even welcome the fire if we may be rid of the dross.

Lord, save us from personal sin, from sins of temperament, from sins of our surroundings. Save us from ourselves in every shape, and grant us especially to have the light of love strong within us.

May we love God; may we love You, O Savior; may we love the people of God as being members of one body in connection with You.

May we love the guilty world with that love which desires its salvation and conversion; and may we love not in word only, but in deed and in truth.

May we help the helpless, comfort the mourner, sympathize with the widow and fatherless, and may we be always ready to put up with wrong, to be long suffering, to be very patient, full of forgiveness, counting it a small thing that we should forgive our fellow-men since we have been forgiven of God.

Lord, tune our hearts to love, and then give us an inward peace, a restfulness about everything.

May we have no burden to carry, because, though we have a burden, we have rolled it upon the Lord.

May we take up our cross, and because Christ has once died on the cross may our cross become a comfort to us.

May we count it all joy when we fall into divers trials, knowing that in all this God will be glorified, His image will be stamped upon us, and the eternal purpose will be fulfilled, wherein He has predestined us to be conformed unto the image of His Son.

Lord, look upon Your people. We might pray about our troubles. We will not; we will only pray against our sins.

We might come to You about our weariness, about our sickness, about our disappointment, about our poverty; but we will leave all that, we will only come about sin. Lord, make us holy, and then do what You will with us.

We pray You help us to adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.

If we are fighting against: sin — “the sin which does so easily beset us” — Lord, lend us heavenly weapons and heavenly strength that we may cut the giants down, these men of Anak that come against us.

We feel very feeble. Oh! make us strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. May we never let sin have any rest in us, may we chase it, drive it out, slay it, hang it on a tree, abhor it, and may we “cleave to that which is good.”

Some of us are trying, striving after some excellent virtue. Lord, help stragglers; enable those that contend against great difficulties only to greater grace, more faith, and so to bring them nearer to God.

Lord, we will be holy; by Your grace we will never rest until we are. You have begun a good work in us and You will carry it on. You will work in us to will and to do of Your own good pleasure.

Lord, help the converted child to be correct in his relation to his parents; help the Christian father or mother to be right in dealing with children, “may they not provoke their children to anger lest they may discourage.”

Take away willfulness from the young; take away impatience from the old.

Lord, help Christian men of business. May they act uprightly; may Christian masters never be hard to their servants, to their workpeople; and may Christian workpeople, give to their masters that which is just and equal in the way of work in return for wage.

May we as Christian men — not aside always standing upon our rights, but always be willing each one to minister to the help of others.

And, oh that as Christians we might be humble! Lord, take away that stiff-necked, that proud look; take away from us the spirit of “stand by, for I am holier than You;” make us condescend to men of low estate; … and even to men of low morals, low character.

May we seek them out, seek their good. Oh! give to the Church of Christ an intense love for the souls of men. May it make our hearts break to think that they will perish in their sin.

May we grieve every day because of the sin of this world. Set a mark upon our forehead and let us be known to You as men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of the City.

O God, save us from a hard heart, an unkind spirit, that is insensible to the woes of others.

Lord, preserve Your people also from worldliness, from rioting, from drunkenness, from chambering and wantonness, from strife and envy, from everything that would dishonor the name of Christ that we bear.

Lord, make us holy. Our prayer comes back to this. Make us holy; cleanse the inside and let the outside be clean too. Make us holy, O God: do this for Christ’s sake. Not that we hope

to be saved by our own holiness, but that holiness is salvation. Then we are saved from sin.

Lord, help Your poor children to be holy. Oh! keep us so if we are so; keep us even from stumbling, and present us faultless before Your presence at last.

We pray for friends that are ill, for many that are troubled because of the illness of others.

We bring before You every case of trouble and trial known to us, and ask for Your gracious intervention.

We pray for Your ministers everywhere; for Your missionary servants. Remember brethren that are making great sacrifice out in the hot sun or in the cold and frozen north. Everywhere preserve those who for Christ’s sake carry their lives in their hands.

And our brethren at home, in poverty many of them, working for Christ, Lord, accept them and help us to help them. Sunday-school teachers, remember them; and the tract visitors from door to door, and the City missionaries, and the Bible women, all who in any way endeavor to bring Christ under the notice of men. O, help them all.

We will offer but one more prayer, and it is this. Lord, look in pity upon any who are not in Christ. May they be converted. May they pass from death to life, and they will never forget it; may they see the eternal light for the first time, and they will remember it even in Eternity.

Father help us; bless us now for Jesu’s sake. Amen.

Charles Spurgeon