Prayer for weanedness from the world

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(John MacDuff, "Evening Incense" 1856)

"They are not of the world--even as I am not of the world." John 17:16

O my God, I desire to come into Your gracious presence. May the incense-offering of gratitude and thanksgiving ascend from a grateful heart. How manifold are the proofs I have to recount of kindness on Your part! How deep the ingratitude I have to mourn on my own! My sins have reached unto the clouds--they are more in number than the sands of the sea! You are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. I cannot evade Your righteous scrutiny--all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom I have to do!

Lord, I mourn the debasing influence of earthly things--the fascinating power of a present evil world. How inclined I am to conform to its evil maxims and unholy practices! How often I am found among those who "mind earthly things"--my soul cleaving to the dust, instead of soaring upwards to Yourself, my sole satisfying portion!

O Lord, it is my earnest prayer that You would wean me from the world. Keep me from over-anxiety about the things that are seen--from being over-careful and troubled about earth's "many things"--to the exclusion of the one thing needful!

Break every alluring worldly spell!

Disenchant temporal things of their false and delusive charm!

By all the beneficial discipline of Your providence--disengage me from what is fleeting, uncertain, transient, perishable; and unite me to the things which cannot be shaken--but which remain forever! May my heart be more in Heaven--imbibing more of the pilgrim spirit. May I declare plainly that I seek a better country.

May I be driven nearer and closer to Him who is the true refuge and portion and Savior of His people. I rejoice to think that He has . . .
a balm for every wound,
a comfort for every bosom,
a solace for every tear!

May it be mine to go up through this 'wilderness world'--leaning on His loving and omnipotent arm!

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