I no longer want to live a disorderly, meaningless life that focuses on gratifying my own desires, but I want to have a “single-minded devotion to you and your will” (143). Since “choice is where sin dwells” (46), help me to completely surrender my will and learn you are supreme over all things seen and unseen. I know that you are reaching out to me and when I invite you in, I will receive the “gift of life from above” (149).

Even though the “flesh often wants what is contrary to the spirit” (36), I know the body that you have given me to exist in this physical and social world was created in your image, your treasured temple and therefore is capable of doing good. Teach me to surrender all parts of my body to you so that they can be presented as a living and holy sacrifice very pleasing unto you (Romans 12:1-2).

Lord I understand my spiritual walk is not a private matter for I am reciprocally rooted in you and thus my relationships with my neighbor cannot be right unless your loving presence “extends through others to me and from me to others” (187). Instead of assaulting and attacking or withdrawing and distancing myself from others, teach me to submit, nurture, forgive and show genuine, inclusive love to all others.

While through my own wisdom I know I can never recover from the bondage of sin, may I never “underestimate the powers of recovery of the soul under grace” (201). May my soul constantly delight in your law and may I drink from the living waters so that I may never be hungry or thirsty again (John 6:35). May I hide your words in my heart and may I come to understand the order of your kingdom and your character (215).

Lord, may I not be like a man who looks for you in a well merely to find a reflection of a self-centered soul, but may I drink from your living water so that my whole being might be transformed into Christ likeness. May my thoughts, feelings, will, body, social context and soul be transformed into what you always intended me to be, an apprentice serving in your kingdom.

Prayer based on: Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard

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