---
title: 'J.A. Alexander: A Prayer for Humility'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2025-04-13
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2025-j-a-alexander-a-prayer-for-humility
---

# J.A. Alexander: A Prayer for Humility

“Mercy and help, O Lord, my Sovereign Lord! Thou who lovest little children, make me a little child! Make me humble, simple-hearted, tender, guileless and confiding! Kill my selfish pride! Shiver my hard heart! Break my stubborn spirit! Make me love my kind by making me to love Thee! O soften me, my Saviour, by showing me Thy own tender, bleeding, melting heart! Purge envy from my heart by causing me to love and work for Thee! O, that this foul fiend were wholly dispossessed! I bless Thee for trials — may they do me good! Compel me to remember that I am not my own! Save me from being the object of envy or ill-will. Save me from the wickedness of trying to excite it! Lord, I would give the world for true humility. O, make me — make me humble!” — A prayer by [**Joseph Addison Alexander**](/authors/joseph-addison-alexander) in his journal dated January 18, 1835 found in [Henry C. Alexander](/authors/henry-carrington-alexander), *The Life of Joseph Addison Alexander, D*.*D*., Vol. 1 (1870), p. 376