PRAYER OF A SINNER

Try me, O God, and search the ground of my heart: prove me and examine my thoughts. Look well if there be any wickedness in me, any root of bitterness yet undiscovered; and lead me in the way everlasting. Show me the true state of my soul. Bring me out from every false refuge. Strip off every deceitful covering, every covering that is not of Thy Spirit. Forbid that the anchor of my hope should be cast, or the house of my dependence built, on any but Christ, the Rock of Ages. Forbid that I should rest short of that repentance which is Thy gift, and is connected with life eternal: and forbid, O forbid, that I should sit down without aspiring to that conformity unto Thee in righteousness and true holiness, abstracted from which repentance is false and faith is dead.