Lord I come before You, destitute of your Holy Spirit who is far from me. My own soul is a desert landscape devoid of your holy presence. All that remains is flesh filled with anger and resentment and toil and despair. My heart is stone locked in bitterness. I come to You my Sculptor and ask You to chip away at my marble heart to free your good creation inside the stone, a living statue filled with Your Breath.

I do not want to eat the fruit of going my own way -- no never! Yet I am not willing to die or live for you. This yieldedness is an impossible effort for mere mortals. Only you can sustain me and grant to me a willing spirit as Your gift of mercy. And this I ask of You believing that whatsoever I should ask in Your name, according to Your will, shall be done for me. Amen.