A cup of love

(J. R. MacDuff, "A BOOK OF PRIVATE PRAYERS" 1890)

My Father in heaven, draw near to me in Your infinite mercy. May all vain and wandering thoughts be silenced and repressed, as I now approach Your footstool. I adore You for the rich blessings that are treasured up in Christ. In Him I have . . .
  pardon,
  peace,
  acceptance,
  eternal life,
  a balm for every wound,
  a solace for every trial.

May I continually look to His sympathetic hand which dries all tears, and listen to His gracious voice which soothes all sorrows. May it be my habitual desire to follow in His footsteps and to reflect His image; to live and to walk so as to always do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Gladden me this day with Your presence. Morning by morning, as I set out on my path of duty, may it be my increasing desire to attain a nearer and closer conformity to You and to Your holy will—to have more childlike tenderness of spirit, childlike obedience, childlike fear of grieving or offending a Father so full of pitying love and mercy.

I have to lament, heavenly Father—the proneness of my heart to depart from You—seeking my happiness too often in things which perish with the using. Break the world's alluring spell. Disenchant its delusive fascinations! Elevate my affections, purify my desires. May I seek to have the consciousness of Your pure, loving eye ever upon me, living under the supremacy of that elevating motive—to walk so as to please You.

Subdue my unmortified sin; quicken me in every good and holy way. Enthrone Yourself in my soul and life, as Lord of all; and bring me to live more constantly and habitually under the constraining influence of Your love.

Let it ever be to me, a gracious and consoling thought, that "the Lord reigns!" I am but clay in the hand of the almighty Potter! All that concerns me is directed and regulated by Your infinite wisdom and unchanging love. Neither is there anything arbitrary in Your dealings with me. I would lie passive at Your feet, saying, "Do to me and with me—as seems good in Your sight!"

I will be still, and know that you are my God. I flee to the sanctuary of Your covenant love, rejoicing in You as my Father, and in Christ as my Redeemer. May it ever be mine, to accept the cup of affliction which You put into my hand—as a cup of love, saying, "Not as I will, but as You will."

I look forward to that joyous time when, fully purified alike from sin and sorrow, I shall enter within the heavenly gates and stand faultless before Your throne!

I ask these and every other needed blessing, through the all-sufficient merits, and all-prevailing name of Jesus Christ, my only Lord and Savior.