Philip Doddridge, Prayer for Sunday 8-14-2022

O first, greatest, fairest of all objects! While I feel your sacred Spirit breathing on my heart and exciting these fervors of love to you, I cannot doubt it any more than I can doubt the reality of this life, while I exert the actions of it, and feel its sensations.

Surely, if ever I knew the appetite of hunger, my soul hungers after righteousness, and longs for a greater conformity to your blessed nature and holy will.

If ever my palate felt thirst, my soul thirsts for God, even for the living God, and pants for the more abundant communication of his favor.

If ever this body, when wearied with labor or journeys, knew what it was to wish for the refreshment of my bed, and rejoice to rest there, my soul rests upon your gracious bosom, O my heavenly Father, and returns to its repose in the embraces of its God, who has dealt so bountifully with it.

And if ever I saw the face of a beloved friend with complacency and joy, I rejoice in beholding your face, O Lord, and in calling you my Father in Christ. Such you are, and such you will be, for time and for eternity. What have I more to do, but to commit myself to you for both? I leave it to you to choose my inheritance and to order my affairs for me, while all my business is to serve you, and all my delight to praise you. My soul follows hard after God, because his right hand upholds me. Let it still bear me up, and I shall press on toward you, till all my desires be accomplished in the eternal enjoyment of you!

Amen.

Elliot Ritzema, ed., 400 Prayers for Preachers (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012)