Lord, Just Take it Away

Today I started a tiny book that contains some of Spurgeon's prayers. For those of you who know me, you know that I cannot read without a pencil. I just love to annotate and underline (because I have the retention capacity of a 2-year-old). But the weight and power of the first prayer I read almost made me underline the entire prayer. Such conviction could only come from the wonderful Charles H. Spurgeon that God had blessed tremendously. Here is an excerpt from the first prayer entitled "Help from on High."

Lord Jesus, take from us now everything that would hinder the closest communion with God. Any wish or desire that might hamper us in prayer remove, we pray thee. Any memory of either sorrow or care that might hinder the fixing of our affection wholly on our God, take it away now. What have we to do with idols any more? Thou hast seen and observed us. Thou knowest where the difficulty lies. Help us against it, and may we now come boldly, not into the holy place alone, but into the holiest of all, where we should not dare come if our great Lord had not rent the veil, sprinkled the mercy seat with his own blood, and bidden us enter (emphasis mine).

Man... this helps put our lives back into perspective. We, along with Spurgeon, pray "Lord, take away everything that takes me away from you." I think that later in this prayer Spurgeon realizes that his own flesh even gets in the way of his communion with the Lord. He says, "We confess that sometimes in prayer when we are nearest to thee at that very time some evil thought comes in, some wicked desire. Oh! what poor simpletons we are. Lord, help us..." There is a realization of the sinfulness of man especially in the presence of God the righteous. Every member of our body is corrupted by sin and it is disgusting. I think of how often I sin and it makes me yearn for heaven where glorious eternal worship will take place without this corrupted mortal flesh. Anyway, I don't want to ramble on so I'll just end it with a final quote from this prayer. May this be our anthem for the rest of our lives:

"Lord, sanctify us. Oh! that thy Spirit might come and saturate every faculty, subdue every passion, and use every power of our nature for obedience to God."

Father, I'm sorry that I am such a failure. I know that you will judge me perfectly and You are righteous to give me all that I deserve. Yet, O Lord, do not not forget what Christ has done for me, the poor sinner. He has pleaded on my behalf, he has cleansed me from all unrighteousness, and He has saved me forever when my foolish mind thought that I could save myself.