Prayer for Piety

Holy God! when I think of my natural depravity and my many sins, I scarcely know whether I dare venture to come before Thy face. Thou sayest to me: “Walk before me, and be thou perfect,” and “if thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. Yea, fear God, and do right, and it shall be well with thee.” But alas, my piety has made no progress. I have hitherto been entangled in the world and its affairs, its habits and vanities. And where the world enters, Christ departs; where the love of the world reigns, godliness is at an end.

But since I can not be pleasing to Thee in such a condition, and none but the believing and godly find favor in Thy sight, grant me a godly heart. Help me to be genuinely pious. Let my whole religious life be upright and sincere, and not a mere eye-service or hypocrisy. Grant me grace to strive after true godliness, — not one which is seeming and outward only, but one which has its source in the heart, — that I may love Thee above all things, and may always do those things which are pleasing to Thee; yea, that, just as an obedient child looks for its parent’s permission in its undertakings, so I may always look to Thy holy Word and commandments to see whether what I propose to do is becoming to me as a Christian. If my heart is thus obedient, then I shall speak and do nothing but that which is pleasing to Thee.

My God! I have formed this resolution in Thy name. Give me grace and strength to carry it out. If in the years that are gone I have not served Thee as I ought, forgive me for Christ’s sake. What in my blindness and folly I have neglected, I will now with all the greater zeal devote myself to accomplish. I will live henceforth, not according to the lusts of the flesh, but according to Thy will. I will seek to become and remain godly in heart and life, that I may at last, as a true Christian, die a happy death. To this end, grant me from on high the power of Thy Holy Spirit for Christ’s sake. Amen.