Dear God, it takes me no effort to draw near to you. It is always a homecoming and relief. Yet I resist. I operate on self-reliance. Everything, in this way of thinking, depends on me. I am the motive power. How tired this makes me.

Lord, let me give up and come to you. You will order the chaos of my world. You will move all the levers.

All I need do is cease resisting. Let me be willing to let go in your arms. Thy will be done.

(Letter #954)

Dear God, let me have right motives today. I too often congratulate myself on this or that good deed, while ignoring the selfish reasons behind many of my actions. I help someone, so I may receive praise. I worry about others' welfare, as a means of exerting control. I avoid challenging conversations, out of fear that I will not be liked.

Lord, direct my motives. Make me into a good person both in deed and in thought. Let me be willing to be that person. Remove my defects and replace them with virtue.

Where I am dishonest, make me instead honest.

Where I am selfish let me instead have concern for others.

Where I am prideful, let me instead have a measure of humility.

Where I am lazy and slothful, let me instead be industrious.

Where I have self-pity, let me instead have acceptance.

Remake me, O Lord. Guide my heart and feet.

(Letter #953)

Dear God, the day is unwritten. I am free to hold any opinion that I wish about how it might unfold. My attitude, in this still, early hour, is entirely a matter of choice. I can tell any story to myself about this day. Am I to be a hero? A victim? A bystander? Whatever story I choose will circumscribe my attitude.

If the story I tell myself is arbitrary now, when it is in response to nothing, then it will be equally arbitrary later, when supposedly it arises from events of the day.

Lord, let me have the faith required to choose no story whatsoever. Let me not concoct a drama about the day's events, but instead witness them with neutrality.

In every instance, let me simply ask what you would have me do, and set about responding without fanfare.

Today, Lord, let my inner life be placid. Let me not replay past events nor prefigure possible future events – incessantly turning them over in my mind.

Let me focus on what is real, here before me. Let me accept your will today.

(Letter 952)

Dear God, draw near to me. For too long I have felt so far from you, indeed, on some level, estranged. I sit and I pray each morning, yet it is empty. I can recall times when your spirit infused me, when I felt radiant with your love. Let those days come again.

I have heard often that, at any moment, I can start my day over again. Perhaps I might apply this approach to the low spot in which I find myself. It is completely within my power to alter my attitude. Let me use the same tools on my spiritual life that I use on my moral development. Let me become willing that this estrangement might be removed. Let me act as if it already had been healed. Let me hold my head high, secure and buoyed by faith in your love.

For indeed, wailing about how far you are is the wrong approach. You are always present and any distance I perceive is because I myself have not drawn near enough to you. Let me seek you. Let me actively draw closer to you. Let this be my new attitude.

Lord, guide me. Let me try ever harder to seek and to do your will. This doing will draw me closer to you, closer to a faith in you. To seek you – that is the proper use of my will.

I am seeking you today.

(Letter #951)

Dear God, I busy myself trying to change the conditions in which I find myself. I tell myself I am seeking your will as to how I ought to respond to the world. In reality, I ask myself: how can I manage the world? At the core of this question is dissatisfaction and ego. I am not pleased with the way things are, and changing it is entirely up to me.

Lord, let me see things differently. Let me approach the day with acceptance. Everything that happens, or does not, is indeed your will.

How can I best accept these conditions? How can I learn what lesson you are teaching me? How should I grow? In what direction do you move me?

The difference is one of mind set. Starting with acceptance, I may have a chance to be a source of harmony today.

Let me find peace today, and give it to others.

(Letter #950)

Dear God, what would you have me do today, O Lord? I make my own plans, and I do not seriously enough seek guidance. I imagine I know how the day will or should unfold. I look to you as an afterthought.

How, Lord, can I better place your will before all else? How can I do more than simply mouth the words of my prayers? If I am honest, with myself and with you, my seeking is inadequate. I pretend to pray, I pretend to ask for guidance. In reality I have my own plans and designs.

Lord, burn this selfishness out of me. Make me ready to have faith. Let me be more willing to believe, more willing to be guided.

Today, let me pause before acting. In that pause, grant me a better motive and move me to act according to my higher nature.

Let your will be done today.

(Letter #949)

Dear God, I doubt. As I contemplate the day, the events and interactions it may bring, I worry about what may transpire, about my ability to handle what will come. Doubts, like termites, chew through my mind, undermining the faith and trust that I recall as a dim memory.

Grant me faith, my Lord! I view myself as the lone actor in a dark drama, responsible for every beat the plot. Lord, let me see this self-regard for what it is: manifestations of my Gargantuan pride and ego

Let me instead view myself as a bit player in a great pageant orchestrated and directed by you. My role is to perform as dictated. In areas where no instructions are given, I am to wait. You will guide me.

God, grant me willingness to accept your love. Grant me faith that I need not call to you, that you are already here.

If I am your child, then so, too, are those around me. You will move all of us. My role is not to save the day, but to simply carry my small load.

God, let me seek your will for me. Let me be a source of support for my fellow children. Let me be a being of light today. Fill me with a positive energy. Let me share your love.

(Letter #947)

Dear God, let me take pleasure in dwelling in your presence today. Let my faith in you be complete.

Let me not trouble myself with thoughts of how the day will unfold, but instead let me simply enjoy my companionship with you. No matter the event, I am with you, and you with me.

Let this be my bedrock: your presence.

(Letter #947)

Dear God, a feeling of well-being has settled upon me. I may face challenges, yet from this quiet vantage point they do not trouble me unduly.

Lord, O Lord, your gift to me is the ability to look the world in the eye. I know this equanimity is fleeting. Soon enough, I will perceive myself as full of woe, and soon enough after that I may feel elated out of all proportion. But at this moment I have neutrality. Let me remember this time, when subject to such extreme attitudes. This time when I feel able to walk calmly through the day.

Lord, let me pass today's gifts of equanimity on to some other. Let me glide through the day as an untroubled source of love.

Let me be willing to do your will today, calmly, without fanfare and without struggle.

(Letter #946)

Dear God, I often pray that I might become a better person, that I might overcome my defects. This is in itself a form of pride – that I can presume to know the directions in which I should grow.

Lord, let me seek your will. Let me accept your dictates. Let me not try to be someone else, as if my defects can just be wished away. Let me have willingness, complete willingness, to be your servant. Thy will be done.

(Letter #945)