My prayer for 2019
It’s a brand new year – 2019.
I find that my heartfelt prayer for this year is summarized by a song adapted from a prayer of St. Richard of Chicester. His prayer went thus:
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day.
Amen.
Some of the words of this prayer were adapted for the song ‘Day by Day’ which words form my prayer for 2019:
Day by day, dear Lord of Thee
Three things I pray:
To see Thee more clearly,
To love Thee more dearly,
To follow Thee more nearly,
Day by day.
I remember this hymn from my primary school assemblies and, having no understanding of what I was singing, I always mixed up the adverbs – clearly, dearly and nearly. I’m not sure I even really understood that ‘thee’ meant the same thing as ‘you’! Now, I have understanding and these words mean a great deal to me and are my heart’s desire.
In subsequent blogs, I will expound on these three elements properly but for now, let me just touch on them briefly to say what is really in my heart.
To see You more clearly:
To see the Lord more clearly, in my view, is to know Him better and therefore see Him as He really is. It is to go beyond what or who men say He is and to discover for ourselves (through the written word and experientially) who He really is.
What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all thing …… I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…
(Philippians 3:8-10 NIV)
I want to know Him more.
To love You more dearly:
Our faith as Christians has love as its foundation. God’s love for us set the ball rolling and our expected response is what Jesus said:
“….’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”
(Matthew 22:37-38 NIV)
I want to love Him more.
To follow You more nearly:
The only way to be a true disciple of Christ is to follow Him.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
(Matthew 16:24 NIV)
I want to follow more.
I read an article this afternoon that expressed these three elements in another way:
Forgiveness, imputed righteousness, escape from divine wrath, rescue from hell, resurrection of the body, eternal life — these are glorious achievements of Christ crucified. But they are not the main gift of God’s love — not the ultimate gift that Jesus bought with his blood. They are all means, not the end. The end is seeing God in all his beauty, and enjoying personal friendship with him, and being conformed to his likeness in every way that maximizes our enjoyment and reflection of his greatness. Christ died mainly for this.
– John Piper
– Seeing God in all his beauty is seeing Him more clearly.
– Enjoying personal friendship with him is loving Him more dearly.
– Being conformed to his likeness is following Him more nearly.
This is my heartfelt prayer for this year. What’s yours?