Dear God, I am alive, sheltered, with sufficient resources for the day. Food, water, air. On the level of organic survival, I have no needs nor pressing problems. Any worry I have, any anxiety, is fiction. My worst fear is not death or privation, but loss of status or denial of something I think I want or need. Such imaginary problems. They all amount to a worry that I might face unpleasant emotions.
Lord, I so easily confuse my emotional life for my spiritual being. I act as if I believe gratitude and faith must depend on being in the proper mood. I perceive my emotional state as my reality.
Deliver me, O Lord, from this wrong thinking. My emotional reactions to circumstances are all illusion. Depending on the day, the very same events may cause elation or despondency. This is proof enough that they are unreal.
Lord, let me see the reality of your work in my life. Let my faith grow, like an oak, and overshadow the daily emotional changes and even my physical being. Let me see the reality that is otherwise invisible.
If I am truly grateful, then I will act. I will pass it on. Let me recognize the faith you have slowly delivered to me, that you have awakened in me, for the gift that it is. Let faith in you be my reality.
(Letter #876)
Daily Letters to God 