Dear God, how shall I do your will today? I am bedeviled by conflicting thoughts and emotions. Fear grips me and I become paralyzed. It looms so large, yet I do not look closely enough at it to know its qualities.

If I examine my fear I begin to see it clearly. I am afraid I may lose something, that I may face discomfort. That things will not go my way. That people I love will face difficulty.

Lord, grant me the courage to look clearly at my fears and recognize them for what they are. They are illusions. You have never brought more to me than I can handle.

Grant me eyes to see you all around me, O Lord. You support me even amidst trials. Everything you deliver is a lesson. Let me learn what you would have me learn. Let me love those around me. Let me serve them as a demonstration of your perfect love.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #902)

Dear God, I have a feeling of calm, before the challenges of the day close in and I begin reacting to events. Let me, Lord, use this quiet moment to listen. Let me hear your guidance today, that I may set my footsteps along the proper course.

Lord, let me seek your quiet voice throughout the day. I too easily forget the morning’s thoughts the moment I step out the door. Let me refresh my reliance upon you often.

God, let me humbly move from task to task, slowly, carefully, with love.

Let me view each thing I do as done in your name and at your direction. Let me not be frantic. Let me move deliberately. Let me walk and act slowly enough that I can discern your presence.

God, guide me today.

(Letter #901)

Dear God, please watch over me today. Guide my thoughts. Let me expend effort today on behalf of others.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #900)

Dear God, each morning, I pray to you that you might relieve me of self-centered thinking — of the bondage of self. I go on to ask that you take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to others of your power. This implies an obligation on my part. If you remove my troubles, I am to bear witness to others of this glorious release. I must share your power with others.

Too often I remain silent. I feel your work in my life, I experience your grace. How energetically do I share this? Not very. I feel embarrassed to proclaim reliance on you. I feel hesitant to be perceived as needy of spiritual aid.

Yet reliance on your grace is the fundamental fact of my daily existence. Without you, Lord, my soul would wither, I would dry up and blow away. Yet I keep these facts secret.

My Creator, let me share your love with others. Let me bear witness, let my very life bear witness.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #899)

Dear God, I am taught that what you require of me is to act justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with you. These simple things are elusive to me. My shortcomings drive me instead to be self-seeking, overly rigid, and prideful.

Lord, let my actions be contrary to my lower self’s desires. Let right action open the door to an improved attitude. Let me be willing to act as if I were just, merciful, and had humility – and may I through this effort become more so.

I am so far from being whom I ought to and could be. Lord, drive me to improve. Thy will be done.

(Letter #898)

Dear God: Pride and ego. These plague me and underlie almost everything negative in my life.

Today, Lord, let me actively work to counter this shortcoming. When I find myself the center of attention, let me turn the spotlight on another. When I find myself criticized, let me dig to see what I can learn. When I feel invincible, let me recognize that such emotions are fleeting.

Let me become willing to seek humility, and to view myself right -sized. Let me do this without drama and without shying away – without passion.

Let me be a simple worker enacting your will.

(Letter #897)

Dear God, I am preoccupied with thinking about myself. As I consider the day’s circumstances, I am focused entirely on how I will feel, what I will do, what my reactions will be. I am the center of this imaginary universe.

Lord, let me see I have a role to play in a story you have created. It is an ensemble. I am only one of many players. Let me honestly seek what you would have me do.

I so easily mouth the words, “Thy will be done,” but do I really mean them? Too often the answer is no. Today let it be yes. Today let me be a carrier of your message and a seeker of your will.

(Letter #896)

Dear God, the turmoil in my mind is almost always unnecessary, arising from self-instigated worry, and bending to no good end. I face a new day, a blank slate, and yet my termite mind fills it already with catastrophe.

Lord, breathe into me. Wash away my frantic thoughts. Slow my heart, slow my twitching reactions.

Let me view the happenings in the world as a river flowing by. Even where there are rocks and rapids, there is a fundamental direction. Let me be pulled along. Let me not struggle. Let me relax my grip.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #895)

Dear God, each day is the same duration, and you invite me to choose how I will spend these hours. This is my choice. The path of my day may take me through difficulty, or calamity, but the choice is always mine as to how to place my feet, how to negotiate each circumstance – and with what attitude.

Am I resentful, dishonest, afraid, selfish? Or will I try to have faith, think of others, be loving, and be honest in all my dealings? My choice.

Lord, let me choose to be my higher self, the one you built me to be.

Thy will be done today.

(Letter #894)

Dear God, I am in battle with myself. I am taught that it is by self-forgetting that one finds, by forgiving that one is forgiven. My selfish core is at war with that part of me that would spread your love generously to all. After so much time, so much effort, Lord, how can it be that inside I am still so narrow?

Lord, let me see the struggle to self-surpass as the fundamental gift you have given to me. The knowledge of my shortcomings is what drives me to act against them.

Let me not fall into despondency and fear. Let me seek to comfort, aid, and love all those around me. Let me burn away all the selfish, mean spirit that blocks me. Let love of others shine light into all the hidden shadows inside me.

(Letter #893)