Sunday Prayer

Sunday Prayer

“Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”Psalm 124:8

On Sundays during Lent it is my practice to offer a prayer from one of the saints of the church who has gone before us. As a Presbyterian, I would be remiss if I did not include a prayer from John Calvin. So today I have included the only hymn written by John Calvin in our Presbyterian hymnal (actually it's only attributed to him, so I guess there is no original manuscript). The hymn is a prayer of faith addressed to Jesus Christ as our Savior. The hymn is “I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art”.

I greet thee, who my sure Redeemer art,

my only trust and Savior of my heart,

who pain didst undergo for my poor sake;

I pray thee from our hearts all cares to take.

Thou art the King of mercy and of grace,

reigning omnipotent in every place:

so come, O King, and our whole being sway;

shine on us with the light of thy pure day.

Thou art the life, by which alone we live,

and all our substance and our strength receive;

sustain us by thy faith and by thy power,

and give us strength in every trying hour.

Thou hast the true and perfect gentleness,

no harshness hast thou and no bitterness:

O grant to us the grace we find in thee,

that we may dwell in perfect unity.

Our hope is in no other save in thee;

our faith is built upon thy promise free;

Lord, give us peace, and make us calm and sure,

that in thy strength we evermore endure.

Note: I thought about including a prayer for John Knox, our Scottish patriarch in the Presbyterian family tree. However, his most famous prayer is “Give me Scotland, or I die.” Sounds drastic, but in reality it was a heartfelt yearning for God to grant that the gospel would spread through the land.