Thursday, January 20, 2011

Wesley Hymn for the Week: Praying for a Blessing

1          Come, O thou all-victorious Lord,                           
            Thy power to us make known;                                 
            Strike with the hammer of thy word, (Jer. 23:29)               
            And break these hearts of stone.
                             
2          O that we all might now begin                                
            Our foolishness to mourn,                           
            And turn at once from every sin,        (Ezek. 18:30)             
            And to our Saviour turn.   
                           
3          Give us ourselves and thee to know                        
            In this our gracious day;                            
            Repentance unto life bestow, (Acts 11:18)            
            And take our sins away.  
                          
4          Conclude us first in unbelief,  (Rom. 11:32)           
            And freely then release;                             
            Fill every soul with sacred grief,                            
            And then with sacred peace.
                     
5          Impoverish, Lord, and then relieve,    (1 Sam. 2:7)             
            And then enrich the poor;                          
            The knowledge of our sickness give,                     
            The knowledge of our cure. 
                      
6          That blessed sense of guilt impart,                         
            And then remove the load;                        
            Trouble, and wash the troubled heart (John 5:4)                
            In the atoning blood.
                     
7          Our desperate state through sin declare,                            
            And speak our sins forgiven;  (Matt. 9:2)               
            By perfect holiness prepare,                       
            And take us up to heaven.