Prayers Ancient and Modern 09/28

“My soul was filled and overwhelmed with light, and love, and joy in the Holy Ghost, and seemed just ready to go away from the body. I could scarcely refrain from expressing my joy aloud, in the midst of the service. I had in the mean time, an overwhelming sense of the glory of God, as the Great Eternal All, and of the happiness of having my own will entirely subdued to his will. I knew that the foretaste of glory, which I then had in my soul, came from him, that I certainly should go to him, and should, as it were, drop into the Divine Being, and be swallowed up in God.” – Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards

Published September 28, 2016 |

Searcher of all hearts, Thou knowest my heart, and how it stands with me. Thou halt made it, Thou knowest whether I love Thee. All I am or have that has any goodness in it, I am or have alone through Thee, for it is all Thy work in me; but it must be Thine also by the free surrender of my heart. In Thy service, and fulfilling Thy will, I would fain spend every minute of my life. The thought of Thee shall be the sweetest to me of all thoughts; to speak of Thee the dearest and best of all I speak or hear; the joy of Thy love shall be the inmost joy of my soul. Gladly would I devote my whole being to Thee; accept me, then, as a living sacrifice, and give me the mind that was in Christ Jesus, to the glory of God the Father—Amen.

Michael Sailer (1751–1832).