Laying It all Down

I recently typed out this prayer from a book I'm reading, that I wanted to share with y'all. It has encouraged me in so many ways, and I hope that it will do this same for you... I think I'm gonna frame it and hang it by my bathroom mirror, so that I can recite it each and every day.  Powerful stuff...

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My whole life I’ve searched for a love to satisfy the deepest longings within me to be known, treasured, and wholly accepted. When you created me, Lord, Your first thought of me made your heart explode with a love that set you in pursuit of me. Your love for me was so great that You, the God of the whole universe, went on a personal quest to woo me, adore me, and finally grab hold of me with the whisper, “I will never let you go.”

Lord, I release my grip on all the things I was holding onto, preventing me from returning Your passionate embrace. I want nothing to hold me but You. So with breathless wonder, I give you all my faith, all my hope and all my love.

I picture myself carrying old, torn-out boards that inadequately propped me up and placing them in a pile. This pile contains other things I can remove from me now that my new intimacy-based identity is established.

I lay down my need to understand why things happen the way they do.

I lay down my fears about others walking away and taking their love with them.

I lay down my desire to prove my worth.

I lay down my resistance to fully trust Your thoughts, Your ways, and Your plans, Lord.

I lay down being so self-consumed in an attempt to protect myself.

I lay down my anger, unforgiveness, and stubborn ways that beg me to build walls when I sense hints of rejection.

I lay all these things down with my broken boards and ask that your holy fire consume them until they become weightless ashes.

And as I walk away, my soul feels safe. Held. And truly free to finally be me.

(Excerpt from Univited by Lisa TerKeurst)