Almighty God, in whom all things live,
move, and have their being, who dost govern
all things by Thy wise providence, and
whose protection is my only security and
defence; I humbly beseech Thy divine
Majesty to give Thy holy angels charge over
me in the journey I am now about to under-
take. Let Thy grace preserve me from all
the temptations to which I shall be exposed,
in all those places and companies whither
my occasions shall lead me. Defend me from
thieves and robbers, and protect me from all
other dangers and accidents. Preserve my
going out and my coming in. Let Thy kind
providence be my guard. Thy grace my
defence, and Thy blessed Self my portion,
now and evermore, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
We must reject our well-meaning but misguided spiritual determinism. As it turns out, it doesn’t all depend on us. The Bible is full of examples of spiritual giants producing rascally children and noble kin coming from polluted loins. While the proverbial wisdom of Scripture (Prov. 22: 6) and the promises of the covenant (Gen. 17: 7) tell us that good Christian parents and good Christian children normally go together, we must concede that God is sovereign (Rom. 9: 6– 18), salvation is a gift (Eph. 2: 8– 9), and the wind of the Spirit blows where it wishes (John 3: 8).
Kevin DeYoung