This is a moving prayer from W. A. Criswell:
O God,
help me to be a better Christian.
Lord,
help my tongue to say blessed things,
good things,
helpful things,
encouraging things.
Help my tongue to name the name of Jesus.
Help me toward my family,
and toward the circle of my home,
and help me among the people with whom I work.
Our Lord,
I am the last fellow in the world
that ought to stand up in a sacred place like this
and castigate other people for their sins,
when I am such a sinner myself.
But, Lord, there’s grace and mercy in the heart of God.
O, that I might be exemplary in all of my ways:
that I might be patient, and kind and contrite;
that I might be filled with God’s love for humanity;
that I might always have the heart and the Spirit of the lowly Jesus;
that I might be like my Master,
whose name I try to name,
whose gospel I try to preach,
whose cause I try to hold up in the earth.
And, Lord, where I haven’t done good,
and haven’t said right;
and have ever fallen into temper and misjudgment,
and said hurtful or cutting things;
and wherever I have misled the people;
and where I haven’t been altogether as God would want me—Lord, forgive.
Make me a better man,
that I might be a better preacher.
And, our Lord,
may there be in the heart of our church
a wonderful longing to be more like the Master.
May there be in the souls of our people
a hunger and thirst after righteousness.
O God, that we might put away the things that so easily beset us;
habits, and thoughts, and ways,
and sins that bring reproach upon Your name and Your church.
O God, make our church
a reflection of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Give us His will,
His Spirit,
His wisdom,
His love,
His compassion,
His outstretched arms,
His praying lips,
His loving eyes,
His glorious sympathies,
His compassion of heaven.
– The Testing Fire, W.A. Criswell, adapted
