Dear God, let me be filled with industry today. Let me work tirelessly to make your will manifest. Fill me with enthusiasm to carry your love today. Let me feel your love for me. Let me share this with others.

Let me improve the conditions in others’ lives today. Let me not think of myself and my trivial problems. For every challenge I face, let me think of those who face worse difficulties.

Let me actively seek those I would help, without fanfare and without drama. Let me be a quiet source of comfort and ease. Grant me the willingness to abandon myself into you.

(Letter #841)

Dear God, my self-assessment is almost always wrong. My feelings are frequently unconnected with reality. It goes in both directions: I feel on top of the world, performing perfectly, all the while ignoring significant shortcomings – or, I feel in the depths of despair, a failure, while I ignore and diminish those things at which I am succeeding. Rarely, if ever, do I see myself correctly.

Lord, let me pursue your will for me regardless of whether this is accompanied by elation or despair. Let me be consistent, and put in consistent effort. My emotions divert me. I seek to amplify the good and run from the unpleasant. All this is a distraction from seeking your will.

Seeking your will is the proper exertion of my own will – irrespective of my own perceptions. Lord, this is true freedom from the bondage of self.

My dear God, let me gladly accept what you show me about myself. Let the recognition of my shortcomings spur me to improve, and let my feelings of success energize me with joy to spread to my fellows. Let me steadfastly seek your will, moment to moment, day after day.

Let this day be one among many, filled with your love, yet at the same time unremarkably similar to the ones before and after. Thy will be done.

(Letter #840)

Dear God, the fear and worry I experience is often out of all proportion to its apparent cause. I may face calamity with equanimity, yet at the same time, anticipating some trivial interaction paralyzes me.

I can only conclude from this that the majority of my fears are false. They are self-generated and based on illusion.

Lord, if this is so, let me act accordingly. Let me dismiss my worries as I would dismiss any other trivial matter: with a wave of my hand.

You set me the task of delivering your love to this world. I therefore have, even in the most complicated situations, my clear and simple orders: deliver love.

Today, Lord, how can I best deliver love? Let this task sustained me. The love in me cannot be depleted and indeed grows the more I transmit.

Let love shine from me as light from a lamp. Let me shine on my fellows today.

(Letter #839)

Dear God, let me be a source of good cheer today. Let me bring your love to all those around me. Let me be a peacemaker.

Let me see these things as a discipline. It is an easy thing to spread joy when I myself am joyful. But it is a greater spiritual feat to spread joy when I am tired, depleted, struggling.

Lord, let the delivery of your joy to others create energy in me. Let me persevere, taking comfort in the sense that I am fulfilling your purpose.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #838)

Dear God, show me how I can best seek and do your will today. Grant me the power to sow love in all circumstances.

Let me seek discomfort and trouble, so that I may deliver your healing. Let me eagerly find those I resent, so that I may deliver your goodwill. Let me walk towards the things I fear, so that I may demonstrate your power.

You invite me to rest in your stillness and become a vessel for your love. You command me to spread this love if I am to be whole. Let me be a source of joy in this world, bringing your love to all.

Let me have knowledge of your will for me, and the power to carry it out.

(Letter #837)

Dear God, I feel awake and adequate to the tasks of the day. What a gift, that you deliver to me this feeling of sufficiency! Let me have true gratitude for this grace — an undeserved beneficence.

Let me not think myself the author of my good fortune. I am like a child struggling to lift a heavy object. When it rises, I believe it is due to my effort, but I do not see that my parent has in fact raised it for me. My exertions are laughable, yet I regard them so seriously.

Let me, Lord, walk lightly today. You undergird every event and support me even when your hand is unseen.

Today, let me see my task as improving conditions for those around me. Let me bring love into every interaction, the large and the small. Let me delight in every such exchange.

Lord, grant me a thankful heart. Let me see the abundance all around me. Let me share this with my fellows.

Thy will be done, today and always.

Thank you.

(Letter #836)

Dear God: Today. I have today. All that I may need is present to me, all troubles that may come to pass in this day are bearable. My mind casts ahead to things I fear in the future: tasks that will be difficult, calamities that might occur, periods of trial. I know these things are coming.

But today is the day before me. This present time is the substance of my life. These worries for the future rob me of today.

Lord, let me experience this day fully. Let me be entirely present to all that comes my way today. When there is ease, let me respond with joy and gratitude. When there is discomfort, let me seek to understand the lesson you intend.

It is spring. Let me see the growth all around me, and the new buds, and the flowers. Let me focus neither on my plodding feet nor upon the clouds on the horizon.

(Letter #835)

Dear God, I do not normally kneel to pray, but I felt moved this morning to do so. I felt I had just been mouthing the words and pretending at devotion – and that kneeling would jar me into a deeper connection.

Lord, let me find you. I feel apart.

Even in such days of wilderness, I know that steadfastness can be a form of devotion. Consistent effort, regardless of my emotions. Let me persist in seeking and doing your will for me, even when my heart is dull.

Indeed, it is on days of spiritual dullness that I have the greatest opportunity to work on your behalf. It is easy to be a source of love when I feel joyful. But when my inner life is not so enthusiastic, and I still labor to spread love, then that is a spiritual feat.

Lord, let me take concrete actions today to spread love and engender your will for others. This is truly freedom from the bondage of self: overcoming the small, mean vicissitudes of daily living and devoting my actions to others.

Let me do your will for others. Let this discipline improve my character. Let me grow to be the person you have formed me to be. Thy will be done.

(Letter #834)

Dear God, many pressures of daily life intrude on me. They are all ordinary obligations, yet my response to them is out of proportion. Fear and worry grow in me. I want to cry out to you, Lord, that these worries be lifted. But perhaps it is your will that I feel discomfort. Perhaps this is your gentle way of teaching me something.

Lord, let me pour my energy into accepting conditions. Even when in discomfort, indeed especially at that time. Let me see my agitated feelings as a gift from you, just as much as I might gladly accept elation some other time. This is the day you have made for me. Let me live in it, and not pine for some other. Thy will be done.

(Letter #833)

Dear God, a cloud of worry hovers over me. I am frightened about what may befall me in the future. Will I have the resources I need? Well I complete all I must do? What will others think about me? Will my loved ones be okay? I do not so much want answers to these questions, but assurance that all will be well.

Lord, how can I feel your love for me? My intellect knows that all this worry is unprofitable and robs me of the ability to live present in this moment. But I feel so small.

Let me please feel your love today. Let me rely on you as a child on their parent, trusting you absolutely. You have sustained me before, brought me to this point. Let me trust that you will not abandon me.

(Letter #832)