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)