I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications. Zechariah 12:10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalms 51:10.
To "the house of David" and to ’’the inhabitants of Jerusalem" belong all true disciples of Christ; for Christ and His kingdom is the house of David, the new Jerusalem, and its inhabitants are the believers who seek that only which is above who, like David, make supplication for a new and ’’right spirit," for a "clean heart. " The Lord forestalls our prayers. All that we are to pray for, He has already put in our mouth. He will even bestow upon us the Spirit of prayer, without whom we cannot pray. So merciful is the Lord, and yet our trust in Him is so small and weak. For that reason alone we ought to feel prompted to ask for the Spirit of grace and supplication; for grace makes the heart positive and steady, and the Spirit alone can quicken us. All our misery is a result of our lack of the Spirit. The leanness of our soul, our sensuality, the emptiness of our heart how deeply ought not these to bow us down! How powerfully ought they not drive us to pray daily that the Spirit of grace and supplication may be poured upon us; for the Lord will not bestow His Spirit upon us unless we pray for Him in great hunger and thirst and long for Him. But as most people undertake to do all in their own spirit, and even pray in such a spirit, they are and remain in their poverty and lack of Spirit, crippled Christians who know more than they do, and see farther than they are willing to go.
Left to ourselves, we shall but stray;
O lead us on the narrow way.
With wisest counsel guide us;
And give us steadfastness, that we
May henceforth truly follow Thee,
Whatever woes betide us:
Heal Thou gently,
Hearts now broken.
Give some token
Thou art near us,
Whom we trust to light and cheer us.