The ‘God, Change Me’ Prayer

SOULISH faith from a contemplative sphere gets us back to God.

Prayer that changes us to a person — that deconstructs the daily life of our person’s otherwise thriving metropolis — keep us in the running for ‘City of the Year’ awards.

Such an award is nothing contrived — it’s honesty before God as if we stood there before him on the last of our days. ‘City of the Year’ awards (a.k.a. “Well done, good and faithful servant.”) are only available for genuine entrants, who enter on time and play by the competition’s rules, for the Judge’s decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. Such an award there are infinite awards for. But awards are only given if they’re deserved.

The global fact of one human being — a plethora of living cells and the cacophony of ‘being’ decisions every moment — is impossible to reconcile in intrapersonal terms. But the point is our interest is there; our motive is to honour God, alone; when we enter ourselves at the soul level.

If we would change our world, we would have God change us first…

Surely that beam obscuring our own view of reality stands as the cosmic impediment against any progress external to our person. Surely the fields are white (leukos: light, bright, white) and ripe for the picking. Surely now, as God changes us today, we are white and ripe for the picking. Being white has nothing to do with skin colour or any partiality of discord (though Satan wants us stumbling over that one), but it has everything to do with readiness.

Readiness is watchfulness when we have allowed the Holy Spirit to prepare us. For, the soul must be prepared, and our soul can be re-prepared each day.

The ‘God, Change Me’ prayer is the prayer of preparation; the invitation of his anointing over a calling we responded to, but have been disobedient many times in the answering. We are forgiven so now we may respond, afresh.

The ‘God, Change Me’ prayer is a prayer of repentance, yet it is also a prayer for reconciliation, and a prayer for the realisation of the Kingdom within us.

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The ‘God, Change Me’ Prayer — A Model

Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Giver of the Holy Spirit,

Creator God,

I acknowledge only You can change me.

I admit there is a need deep within me for You to do what You do.

And I seek for that need within me to be sated in You, through You, by You.

Restore the city of my soul.

Only You can see the work that needs to occur.

Help me see the scale of disrepair in my soul; curate me at my soul.

Dig as You do, Lord, graciously, sensitively, adroitly.

Toss the deeper soil with the tired surface soil and aerate my being.

Recondition me in the sinews of my being; in the hidden fissures; in the dark places.

Ready me, again, for Your work.

Make me the diligent exponent of Your mercy and Your justice.

By grace, rebuild the materials within my walls, and make me even without walls.

By the Lord Jesus Christ,

My Saviour, My Rock, My Redeemer,

I pray.

AMEN.