Thomas Merton Prayer, Third Step Prayer
“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude, 1956
Fork in the Road, Camp McDowell, Winston County Alabama
I share many prayers with spiritual friends, and this is one of my favorites, especially with friends who are discerning how they are going to be the person God created them to be, deciding a vocation, making life changing decisions, or just trying to live in the present, one day at a time. It has similarities to the Third Step Prayer (page 63 of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Big Book.) “God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of Life. May I do Thy will always.”
These are prayers of surrender.
Joanna joannaseibert.com