Dear God, let me place my attention and energy where they ought to be. I get distracted by worldly concerns and before I know it I have focused exclusively on my own plans and designs, on worries that I face, on my physical body even.

I pretend these things are under my control, which is illusion. Worse, I place them before you. I spend more energy and time attending to trivia than I do tending my relationship with you.

Lord, I pray in the morning that Thy will be done, yet I myself do so little to bring that about.

Let me be active in seeking your will. Let me exert effort to make it reality — let me not try just to discern, but to act.

You grant me so much! Every need I have is fulfilled daily, and it has always been so. Let me not act as if you might fail me, but instead be your servant, working to make your will manifest, confident that all needed supplies will be delivered.

Let me take responsibility for doing my part. Let me work with a joyful and cheerful spirit.

(Letter #843)

Dear God, grant me right motives today. I follow the rules, I perform my duties – yet my inner life is filled with selfishness and pride. I drag myself into my tasks, because deep down I am slothful. I look for ways to shirk my obligations. I seek nothing so much as to look good and be told I am so.

Lord, bring my inner life into the light. Let my thoughts be ones I would gladly make public. Burn away my pride, resentment, dishonesty, selfishness. Leave me with honesty, purity of motive, unselfishness, and love.

Let me act and think as you would have me do. Let me be willing to be changed inside and out.

(Letter #842)

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)