O Lord, who else or what else can I desire but you? You are my Lord, Lord of my heart, mind, and soul. You know me through and through. In and through you everything that is finds its origin and its goal. You embrace all that exists and care for it with divine love and compassion. Why then, do I keep expecting happiness and satisfaction outside of you? Why do I keep relating to you as one of my many relationships, instead of my only relationship, in which all others ones are grounded? Why do I keep looking for popularity, respect from others, success, acclaim, and sensual pleasures? Why, Lord, is it so hard for me to make you the only one? Why do I keep hesitating to surrender myself totally to you?
Help me, O Lord, to let my old self die, to let die the thousand big and small ways in which I am still building up my false self and trying to cling to my false desires. Let me be reborn in you and see through you the world in the right way, so that all my actions, words, and thought can become a hymn of praise to you.
I need your loving grace to travel this hard road that leads to death of my old self and to a new life in and for you. I know and trust that this is the road to freedom.
Lord, dispel my mistrust and help me become a trusting friend. Amen.
--From A Cry for Mercy by Henri J. M. Nouwen
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this is an awesome prayer and I am so glad you shared this. my spirit has prayed this prayer in my own words often in the last few years. it is through God's answers to this prayer that God has and continues to radically transform my life and release me from bondages to which i did not know i was bond. i walk my daily life in this world blinded by my culture, my upbringing, my stereotype, my gender, my race, my socioeconomic status, and my pride. i need His Light and Glory to open my eyes, my mind, and my heart to His way, The Way, of seeing the world and relating to it.
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