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)