January 2

A year of prayer


“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him” (Psa. 62:5).
“Therefore I will look unto the Lord: I will wait for the God of my salvation” (Micah 7:7).
“But it is good for me to draw near to God” (Psa. 73:28).

Lord, at the threshold standing,
I ask this gift from Thee,
That all this year Thy grace is giving,
A year of prayer may be.
Give me a Golden Censer
Burning with incense rare,
And make my life a holy priesthood
Of ceaseless praise and prayer.

Help me to pray for sinners,
With travail pangs of love,
Till souls are born and sins forgiven
By power from above.
Help me to take from Jesus
My healing, breath by breath,
And lift by prayer, the lives that languish
In sickness, sin and death.

And from my glowing Censer
Shall holy incense rise
Before the golden altar yonder,
The altar of the skies;
And Jesus shall present it
With His own incense rare,
While the heavens are hushed in silence
To hear a sinner’s prayer.

Then back to earth, the Master
The answering fire shall send,
And earth and heaven begin to witness
The Advent and the end.
Lord, for that Consummation
Our hearts and lives prepare,
And that its coming we may hasten,
Give us a Year of Prayer.
—A. B. Simpson.

It will never be altogether well with us till we convert the universe into a prayer-room, and continue in the Spirit as we go from place to place.—George Bowen.

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