Friday, January 30, 2009

A Prayer for Today: Barth and Calvin

By your judgment, Almighty God, we stand and fall. Grant that we may see our weakness and powerlessness aright, and let us remember always that you are our power and strength. Help us to let go of all trust in ourselves and in the goods of this world. Teach us to seek refuge in you, and to place confidently in your hands our present life and our eternal salvation, that we may always be yours, and give you honour. Help us to rest in you alone and to live in a manner pleasing to you.

You are the beginning and end of our salvation; grant, therefore, O God, that we may be subject to you in fear and trembling and follow wherever you call us to go. Grant that we may constantly call upon you and cast our sorrows upon you, until we have finally escaped all dangers and come to that eternal peace prepared for us by the suffering, death, and resurrection of your only begotten Son. Amen.

Karl Bath, A Selection of Barth's Pastoral Prayers, VI (Based on a prayer by Calvin).

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