Our hearts are Yours!

(Henry Law, "Family Prayers")

"My son, give Me your heart, and let your eyes observe My ways." Proverbs 23:26

Holy Father, Almighty God,
We desire to give our hearts unto You, without one shadow of reserve. We beseech You to take full possession of them.

Expel mightily every opposing foe.

Crush every rebel lust.

Mortify each traitorous passion.

Annihilate each earth-born desire.

Our hearts are Yours--for You have created them.

They are Yours--for You have redeemed them by the most precious blood of Your only begotten Son.

They are Yours--because in free love You have renewed them by Your Holy Spirit.

They are Yours--because You have conquered them by Your grace.

They are Yours--because we willingly surrender them to You.

Occupy them wholly by Your presence.

Exclude every intruding rival.

Reign supreme within them.

We would love You now, and forevermore, with all our hearts, and all our souls, and all our might, and all our strength. You are worthy of infinitude of adoration, far beyond what our dull hearts can yield. Is love among men awakened by genius, wisdom, worth, and seeming perfection? You are the very perfection of all perfections! All intellect is derived from You. Our scanty rivulets flow from Your unfathomable fountain. Compared with You--
the sun is darkness,
all beauty is deformity,
all knowledge is folly,
the best goodness is most faulty.
You, the great Creator, who inhabits eternity, are high above all creatures. So invigorate our love, that it may worthily rise to You and tightly entwine itself around You!

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Conscience may lash us, but it cannot replenish a languishing life. Conscience may be God's word and minister to you, telling you of your faults and your follies and your destitution. It may point out, but it will never supply you. Christ must give you new life. Hart has well expressed it: "He to the feeble and the faint, His mighty aid makes known; and when their languid life is spent, supplies it with His own." - J. K. Popham