“Obey Thy call to better things”

Though the use of “men” for “people” has become archaic, the yearning expressed here to love and serve Christ with joy is as present to us as our next heart beat. And those things that hold us back are terribly familiar. This prayer asks God to lift those impediments so that we may courageously respond to the “call to better things.”

O God most blessed, who by Thy Spirit didst so reveal to Mary of Bethany the end of the sorrows of her Lord that she anointed Him before hand for burial: mercifully work within us a like discernment and the same reverent devotion. Grant us, we pray, such a sense of the amazing love of our Lord and Saviour, that we may count no treasure too costly to lay at His feet. Help us so to live in the joy of His fellowship and so to crown Him with the homage of our heart, that He may esteem us friends indeed. Deliver is from the fear of men and self-distrust, so that we may not hold back any gift or service to which His love shed abroad may move us, but may hear now and obey Thy call to better things: for the love of Thine only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

From the Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland, 1928
In Prayers from the Reformed Tradition, edited by Diane Karay Tripp, p, 275