a new week’s prayer

O Eternal God,

though Thou are not such as I can see with my eyes or touch with my hands,

yet grant me this day a clear conviction of Thy reality and power.

Let me not go forth to my work believing only in the world sense and time,

but give me grace to understand that the world I cannot see or touch is the most real world of all.

My life today will be lived in time,

but eternal issues will be concerned in it.

The needs of my body will be clamant,

but it is for the needs of my soul that I must care for most.

My business will be with things material,

but behind them let me be aware of things spiritual.

Let me keep steadily in mind that the things that matter

are not money or possessions,

not houses or lands,

not bodily comfort or bodily pleasure;

but truth and honor and meekness and helpfulness and a pure love of Thyself.

~taken from A Diary of Private Prayer