The Darkness of the Future - Prayers of our Predecessors (May 22)

 The Prayer:

‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes. - Mark 9:23

Our Father, we bless You for the privilege we have, through Jesus our Lord and Savior, to call You Father. In this new day we would put our hands in Yours and ask You to lead us. The future is all dark to us, except as it is lighted up with hope of Your presence to go with us. You know the end from the beginning - not a temptation will lurk in our way, not a danger will beset our feet, not an opportunity will cross our path, but that You know beforehand. When we think of Your servants of old, how You did lead them and give them victory over every weakness and every foe, we are encouraged to trust You. Make each of us today helpers to the ongoing Kingdom of our Christ. Our neighbors we would remember. Make plain to us our duty to them. May our sympathies flow our to all the sorrowing of the earth. Help us by our efforts to give winds to the Gospel of our Lord, which made life here sweeter to us and filled our hearts with hope of a life to come. To this may the best thoughts of our minds, the best efforts of our lives, and the most liberal offering of our means be given. For the sake of Your Son, our Savior, we ask these blessings this day. 

Rev. W.B. Crumpton - Montgomery, Alabama (Modernized)

The Author:

W.B. Crumpton - Reverend Crumpton was a Baptist Minister in Alabama and the Executive Secretary of the State Mission Board of Alabama. Serving in that role from 1885-1895 and then again 1889-1915. He was born February 24, 1842 and died March 9, 1929.

Thoughts:

I love the way Rev. Crumpton says: "The future is all dark to us, except as it is lighted up with hope of Your presence to go with us." The future is "dark" in the sense that it is unknown to us. There is an anxiety in the unknown. You can almost feel the apprehension of stepping into a dark room in the expression that Crumpton uses. It evokes that feeling around in the dark carefully as we look for the light switch, concerned that, in the darkness, we might do harm to ourselves not seeing hidden obstacles in our way. Yet, the prayer also highlights the hope of God's presence. It imagines it as a light. Though we may experience the darkness of life in a fallen world, the light of Christ shows us the hope of eternal joy in Him. Our personal destinies remain a question mark, but we place our lives daily into the hands of the One Who has, in Christ, guaranteed as a future with no darkness and no night. (Revelation 22:5)