Dear God, I have so far to go to improve, yet you love me as I am. This amount of grace is staggering. I am so flawed, how could I be loved so?

Lord, let me try to deserve the grace you show me. Take away my selfishness, my judgmental nature, my arrogance. Make me more giving, kind, and humble.

Let me be more willing to improve. Thy will be done.

(Letter #1349)

Dear God, so much keeps me from living close to you. Chains that imprison me: pride, sloth, envy, lust, wrath, greed, gluttony. They bind me ever more tightly to a life of continual self-regard. I see everything through this lens of self.

Lord, free me of this bondage. Let me see through new lenses. Take away these chains, let them drop away. Let me see all the ways I myself am holding onto them. These shackles are not welded to my frame. I grasp them willingly.

I need but let go. Let me do so – let the self, wrapped in its fear, drift away.

(Letter #1348)

Dear God, let me rest with you. These things that cause me fear, wolves circling the campfire, they are illusion. Here with you, let me be held.

Lord, let me recognize that I need no shelter to be safe. Let me see how I already have all the strength I may need and more.

Let me do your will today.

(Letter #1347)

Dear God, let me please live as an example to others of what utter dependence on your grace may look like. Let me truly offer myself over to you. Let me hold nothing back.

I plan, I outline, I forecast. All of it an attempt to influence the future. All of it futile. The harder I grip, the more disloyal I am.

Lord, let me become willing to let go. Let my fear of tomorrow dissipate like mist. Let me, instead, live in wonder at today.

(Letter #1346)

Dear God, let me be your beacon today. Let me call my fellows to you. Let me beckon.

Let me see the love and grace all around – and let me share what I see with others.

Thy will be done.

(Letter #1345)

Dear God, I come to you in the morning gloom to become strengthened. Being with you makes me ready for the day to unfold and for me to meet it. Too often, though, I congratulate myself on the effort put into this time of devotion. I act, wrongly, as if this time with you were a discipline, a daily chore. I rise and face the world prideful over what I have accomplished.

Lord, let me see this time, rightly, as a time of comfort and restoration. Grant me power and deeper humility, that I may serve you and help others.

Glad effort lies before me, not here in my quiet room. Here lies peace.

(Letter #1344)

Dear God, I am so aware of how far from you I am. I cry out for more faith – and this feeling of lack comes even amidst plenty. Gifts shower down around me, and yet I am impoverished. Why? My prayers are simply mouthed words, my devotion hollow.

Lord! Let me abandon myself. It is my self-protection that hobbles me.

Let my inner life, Lord, become more devoted to you today than it was yesterday. Let my faith expand. That ember that is you, glowing in my heart, let it warm, pulse, grow.

Let my attachments to the world, to my selfhood, wither and fall away.

(Letter #1343)

Dear God, let me see all the ways that I am already whole and healed. I awaken believing myself in need of rescue, believing my circumstances cry out for improvement. Let me see this for the delusional thinking that it is. Surveying my conditions, I easily see that all is well if only I will see rightly.

Lord, why do I so constantly require convincing? Grant me better faith, deeper dependence. Change my heart. Turn my attention away from myself and my perceived lack – to an awareness of the power you have already imbued me with, and an acceptance of the resulting obligation.

You touch my heart with love, Lord. Now must I pass it on to my brothers and sisters. Let me become willing to do so regardless of personal cost or perceived risk. Thy will be done.

(Letter #1342)

Dear God, rearrange my thoughts and intentions.

My thinking is so backward: I think first of satisfying myself and only then turn my attention to others. Let me reverse this, Lord. Let me place your will before mine, others’ welfare before my own.

Let me place myself last, an afterthought.

(Letter #1341)

Dear God, so quick am I to congratulate myself for careful living. I fulfill an obligation and childishly seek praise. Or I smugly judge others who struggle, blind to how easily calamity might befall me and, indeed, how recently my inner life was in disarray.

Lord, quiet me. Make me a worker. Take away this chasing after approval, this festering pride.

Above all, Lord, take away my urge to judge others. Let me be compassionate toward all.

(Letter #1340)