Daily Devotionals: (June 18th): A Prayer for a Pilgrim Spirit

Reading: “And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”—Hebrews 11:13

O God, again, in the multitude of Your mercies, You are permitting me to approach the footstool of Your throne. I am another day nearer death. Oh, may I be a day nearer You!

With a new morning’s dawn may I hear the pilgrim summons, “Arise, for this is not your rest.” Before I mingle with the world, give me to feel I am not of it, but born from above, and for above; and cherishing more of a pilgrim spirit, may my prayer and watchword be, “I desire a better country.”

Lord, I bless You for the rich provision You have made for the wilderness journey, for all Your mercies, temporal, providential, and spiritual. Forbid that the many gifts of Your love should draw me away from Yourself, the bountiful giver, or obliterate the solemn impression: “I am a stranger with You and a sojourner.” May I “use the world without abusing it.” By the varied discipline of Your providence may I be led to feel that all my well-springs are in You. May the world’s fascinations be becoming more powerless: sin more hated, holiness more loved, heaven more realized, God more “the exceeding joy” of my soul.

When the wilderness is dreary and the way dark, may He hallow adversity. When friends are removed, may I feel that I have One left more faithful than the best of all earthly friends; and when death comes and the pilgrim warfare ceases, leaning confidingly on that same arm, may I enter the pilgrim’s rest.

Adapted from the Rev. John McDuff, D.D., The Morning Watches, 1852.

John Ross Macduff was born at Bonhard, near Perth, on May 23, 1818. After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he became parish minister of Kettins, Forfarshire,  in 1842. In 1849 he moved to St. Madoes, Perthshire, and in 1855 to Sandyford, Glasgow. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Glasgow in 1862, and from the University of New York about the same time. He retired from pastoral work in 1871, moved to Chislehurst, Kent where he died in 1887.