Prayer - Almighty God, Our Heavenly Father, Grant Us Access

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, grant us access to You in our prayer, for we come in the name of Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. You have invited us to come to You, and we come boldly to Your throne of grace to find mercy and to obtain help in time of our need. Grant us Your peace. Accept us graciously. We are sorry for our sins which have grieved You. We offer no excuse, nor would we try to make our sins seem less heinous than they are. We simply confess them -- and ask You to forgive us.

We have our burdens to carry. Some of them are heavy, and it seems to us that we cannot bear them. But we remember Your promise, that if we cast our burden upon You, that You will sustain us. So we would cast these burdens of ours upon You. We do not ask that You should take them away from us, for it may be that we should continue to bear these burdens. So we ask for grace to keep our burdens, and we plead Your promise for strength to sustain us as we walk beneath them in faith and confidence. Let us not faint and sink down under the load; but may we be enabled to walk erect, helped by Your sustaining grace.

Teach us to do Your will. Your will is always the best thing for us, the only good thing we can do. To go against Your will, is to grieve You, and hurt our own life. Show us what Your will is, day by day, step by step -- what You would have us to do. Then teach us to DO Your will. Incline our hearts unto Your commandments. Then help us to obey Your precepts. It is not easy for us to do this, with our evil hearts -- but may You help us all this day to do only the things that will please You. We ask this in Jesus' precious name. Amen.

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TUESDAY EVENING

We lift up our hearts to You, O God, at this evening hour. We are grateful to You for the mercies and favors of the day. You have kept us from harm. You have provided for our needs, giving us our daily bread and supplying our necessities. You have prospered us in our work, and helped us in our tasks.

We have not had our own way in all matters. Some of the things we desired, we did not receive. Some of our plans, we were not permitted to carry out. Some of the hopes that were in our hearts in the morning, were not realized. We had to take up our cross at times, and deny ourselves. But we believe that these painful things were as really parts of Your loving plan for us -- as were the things that were agreeable and pleasant. All Your ways are mercy and truth. In whatever guise Your will is made known to us -- we know that it is goodness and love. So we accept the unpleasant things that came to us today, with the same confidence and trust that we take the pleasant things. Help us to say cheerfully and with unquestioning faith, "May Your will be done," and may we get the blessing that You put into the painful things.

We leave the day now with You. We shall never see it again until we meet it when the books are opened before Your great white throne. We can change nothing we have done. We can unsay no unkind word we have spoken. We can correct no mistakes, recall no unkindnesses, withdraw no evil influence we have let loose in this world. We can only leave the day with You. You are merciful and gracious. Have compassion upon us. Deal leniently with the day which is gone out of our hands, for Jesus' sake. Amen.