Prayer on Tuesday — A Child of God

O mighty God and dearest Father! How shall I sufficiently acknowledge, laud and magnify Thy love, which has taken pity on my soul and rescued it from destruction? What glory hast Thou not bestowed upon me in Holy Baptism, receiving me as Thine own child! Men boast of their noble birth, exalted position, and earthly wealth. But I value still more highly the blessedness which belongs to me as Thy child. For if we are children of God, then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. Since I am a child of God, my heavenly Father will keep, guide, sustain, and defend me, and will never under any circumstances forsake me. He will not only be my Stay in life, but my Joy in death. He will quicken, strengthen, and comfort me. And when I depart from this world, He will take me to the life of joy above.

O dearest Father, grant me Thy Holy Spirit, that He may constantly remind me of this blessedness which is mine. I am as yet in the world, and dwell among the children of men. O guard me, that I may not follow the example of the worldlings and live in sin, nor in any way endanger my salvation by conforming to their ways. If I see others doing wrong, or hear them speaking evil, let me remember that I am a child of God, and that such sins and vices are unbecoming to me. Enable me by Thy grace to say to the world: “My divine sonship and heavenly inheritance shall not be bartered for thy pleasures and vanities.” O my Jesus! Thou knowest that I love Thee, and that I am filled with genuine sorrow whenever I fail to love Thee as I would and should. O, accept my heart’s desires, and enable me to lead a life of faith and holiness and devotion and purity and childlike humility. Let me love, honor, fear, and follow Thee, that I may live and die as Thy child, and may, as Thy child, share in the joys of heaven. Amen.