Prayers from the Heart
Excerpts from my diary
13 January 2014
Dear Lord,
I long to enter your presence more fully and more regularly. My understanding of reality is so warped by my emotions, many of which stem from the past, that I frequently wander around as if in a fog. I want to break free from that stifling way of seeing the world and enter the clear, fresh air of Your Reality. I am so often confused, thinking I know the way to go, but then, finding I am lost. Please take my hand and lead me. Help me to keep in step with you.
14 January 2014
Dear Lord,
Thank you for meeting me on my walk this morning and showing me the lilies, which grow behind our house every Christmas season. They are so beautiful: pale lilac colours with delicate, pointed leaves. I am thrilled by the fact that you have created everything for our enjoyment, even these flowers that very few will ever see and appreciate. They grow and bloom and eventually fade away exactly where you planted them. May I do the same.
28 January 2014
I am aware of an inner need today for a sense of peace and grace. My soul’s edges are frayed and tattered and need to be “knit up” again. I long for the sense of wholeness that comes from being in Christ. O Lord, you know what I need, you know what has unravelled me, and you know how to make me whole again. Touch me with your hand, I pray; immerse me in your healing waters; cleanse me of the stickiness of all my grumbling, and bring me forth, with a shining face and eyes fixed on you, to walk the path of grace. Grace towards others and grace towards myself, too.
Deanna Pitchford is a psychologist, living and working in Brisbane, Australia. She longs to be more aware of the ways in which God manifests in daily life.