Tuesday, May 26, 2020

A Prayer When We are Afflicted

In Calvin's Commentary he closes each lecture with a prayer. In Lecture 179 on Malachi, Chapter 3 (Volume 15) he offers up this prayer. May it be upon our hearts and tongues as we go through our many afflictions--

"Grant, Almighty God, that since we continue to afford many and various reasons to induce You to withdraw Your blessing, and to show Yourself displeased with us, — O grant, that we may patiently bear Your scourges, by which You chastise us, and also profit under them, and so contend with all our depraved affections and the corruptions of the flesh, that we may become partakers of Your paternal kindness, which Your offer to us, and also so taste of Your goodness, which in innumerable ways is manifested towards us, that it may keep us in the pursuit of true religion; finally, may our tongues be consecrated to magnify Your judgement and to celebrate Your justice, that whatever happens to us, we may always serve You through our whole life as our Father, and declare also Your goodness towards us, and confess that we are justly punished whenever Your visit us with severity, until we shall at length reach that blessed rest, which is to be the end of all our evils, and an entrance, not only into life, but also into that full glory and happiness, which has been procured for us by the blood of Your only-begotten Son.—Amen."

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