Lectionary readings (Click the links to see the readings): Jeremiah 18.18-20 | Psalm 31.1-5 | Matthew 20.17-28

Almighty and eternal God,
you are hidden from my sight:
you are beyond the understanding of my mind:
your thoughts are not as my thoughts:
your ways are past finding out.

Yet you have breathed your Spirit into my spirit:
yet you have formed my mind to seek you:
yet you have inclined my heart to love you:
yet you have made me restless for the rest that is in you:
yet you have planted within me a hunger and thirst
that make me dissatisfied with all the joys of earth.

O Lord God, I praise and magnify your name that thus you have set your seal upon my inmost being not leaving me to my own poor and petty selfhood or to the sole empire of animal passion and desire, but calling me to be an heir of your eternal kingdom. I bless you for that knocking at my heart's door that warns me of your waiting presence. I bless you for your hand upon my life, and for the sure knowledge that, however I may falter and fail, yet underneath are your everlasting arms.

O you who alone knows what lies before me this day, grant that in every hour of it I may stay close to you. Let me be in the world, yet not of it. Let me use this world without abusing it. If I buy, let me be as though I possessed not. If I have nothing, let me be as though possessing all things. Let me today embark on no undertaking that is not in line with your will for my life, nor shrink from any sacrifice which your will may demand. Suggest, direct, control every movement of my mind; for my Lord Christ's sake. Amen.

—John Baillie. A Diary of Private Prayer (Oxford, 1936)