Before Thy Throne, O God, We Kneel

Here are Verses 3, 4 from yesterday's post.  My favorite part is "O God, be with us in the flame."    Those "fierce fires" that we find the most trying are exactly what purify our inmost spirits.

For sins of heedless word and deed,
for pride ambitions to succeed,
for crafty trade and subtle snare
to catch the simple unaware,
for lives bereft of purpose high,
forgive, forgive, O Lord, we cry.

Let the fierce fires which burn and try,
our inmost spirits purify:
consume the ill; purge out the shame;
O God, be with us in the flame;
a newborn people may we rise,
more pure, more true, more nobly wise.

TV~
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
[Isaiah 48:10]