Prayer of belonging from 1 John 3

Dear Lord,

How great is the love you have lavished on me
that I should be called your daughter! (blog here)

The world does not see me like your daughter.

The world says I’m a middle-aged wife and mom with a quasi-successful career as a teacher, with unlikely success as a writer. I live in the suburbs, I never have enough money, I work too much, I socialize too little, I say the wrong things to my children, I ignore too many needs around me.

But that is not who you say I am.
I have inherited your kingdom.
I’m a princess who never had to kiss a frog or wake from a coma or wear a glass slipper.
I’m deserving of your grace and love because you choose to make me deserving.

My unreservedness serves only to make me grateful and humble, if I choose.
Or I can choose shame, materialism, perfectionism, workaholism, self-fulfillment, popularity, anxiety, fatigue, and pursuit of health and beauty.
How foolish I am to think those things will make me fill the hole that you placed in my Spirit so I would find you!

Let me not be led astray by the world’s priorities.
If I do right, I am righteous.
Like you.
This is how I know I’m your daughter.
This is why my heart can rest in your presence,
even when I feel less-than.
You are greater than my failings,
and I can ask your forgiveness and grace whenever I want it.

You are the great Father
and the holy Son.
And you choose to love me.

Amen.

This prayer was taken from 1 John 3.

Listen to the worship son “Sons and Daughters” by North Point InsideOut: Hear Album, Apr. 6, 2015.

Pre-order the new book SOULSPEAK: PRAYING CHANGE INTO UNEXPECTED PLACES here.