For many years, I have used four prayers. Three of them are borrowed from 12-step programs, the Third Step, the Seventh Step and the Serenity Prayers, and the last prayer is an alternate translation of the Lord's Prayer.
In my belief system, God, or the Universe, does not need a grocery list or a Christmas list of my wants. For me, the following prayers align my will rightly with God's.
Third Step Prayer:
"God, I offer myself to Thee - to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.
Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will.
Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always! Amen."
There are several elements that are key for me within this prayer. In the second sentence, the word, bondage, is power packed. My bondage is my wants, my fears, my anger, my selfishness and my ego, to name just a few. I can only be released from these defects of my character through Divine Power.
Sentence three, "Take away my difficulties, that victory ...," the operative word is "victory," not defeat. But the purpose of our victory over our difficulties is not for our self-aggrandizement, but to "bear witness to those I would help" of God's Power, Love and Way of Life.
Our victories are signs of Divine Power and Will in our lives. We carry our Higher Source's light to others in our thoughts, words and behaviors. We are the message.
God is the messenger.
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