05/23/2026 – “To Be Like Christ” – Chapter 19, pgs. 241 -243
An excerpt:
“Blessed are You, O God. Teach us Your statutes! Because You are the infinitely blessed One, You can impart blessing, and You are infinitely willing to do do. Therefore, we approach You with great confidence through Jesus Christ Your Son, whom You have made blessed forevermore.
O Lord, hear the voice of Your servants this day. According to Your infinite love and wisdom, “according to [Your] riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19), answer us…
Alas, we are even sometimes subject to unbelief. If trials come that we do not expect or if our bodies grow faint, how liable we are to begin to doubt the faithful promise and thereby grieve the Holy Spirit. Lord, we cannot bear this. It is not enough for us that our garments are clean and that we walk uprightly before men. We long to walk before You in such a way that nothing would grieve Your Spirit, nothing would vex the tender love of our Beloved. Come, divine Spirit,and exercise Your cleansing power upon us according to Your promise, “I will cleanse your blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion” (Joel 3:21).
Oh, that everything might help us toward purity, for we crave it. We attend the things of the Spirit, and there is groaning within us to be utterly delivered from the things of the flesh, so that we may be a cleansed temple in spirit, soul, and body, fit for the indwelling of the Holy One of Israel. Lord, help us, we pray, in our daily lives, to be as Christ was. If we are men of sorrows, may there be the same luster to our sorrow that there was to His, in patience and holy submission to divine law. If we are men of activity, may our work be like His, for he “went about doing good”. (Acts 10:38). In all ways may we seek the good of our fellowmen and the glory of God.
We wish that zeal for Your house would consume us. We pray that we would be full of sacred warmth. We desire that our lips would be touched with a live coal so that a fire would be perpetually flaming and burning in us. We want to be living sacrifices unto God.
Bless us, we pray, in the areas of our example and influence. May we always have a beneficial effect on others. May there be a sweetness and a light about us that all must be obliged to perceive. We do not crave this for our own honer, but so that our light may “so shine bore men, that they may see [our] good works, and glorify [our] Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Lord grant us this!”
___________________________________
Soli Deo Gloria!