Blessed are we who cringe at the thought of betraying You, the lover of our souls.

Blessed are we who have caught ourselves walking the road toward self-justification, who pause to ask, its is really You, God, I worship? The Immortal, the Ancient of Days, yet no stranger because You make yourself known.

Oh, how blessed are we who lay it all out before You, oh God, asking to be awakened in our lives as You see them. Asking for the inward renovation that will tear down anything false we worship, and for the outward turning that will make every aspect of our life point to You.

Blessed are we, looking for the transformation that has begun, one delight at a time.

From Kate Bowler’s Good Enough, 2022.

Prayer:

Holy God, loving parent; your patience with your children is beyond our comprehension! How many times have we sung praises to you “from whom all blessings flow” and yet in our lives, in our practice and in our giving, we’ve acted like most of those blessings are from our own – to do with as we wish? Often, we have been deaf to your teaching and blind to your leading. May the things we do and the gifts we give be a token to our goal to live generous lives that honor you and express gratitude for your goodness to us. In the name of Jesus, our savior, we pray. Amen.

Lightly modified from a prayer by Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, umcdiscipleship.org.