“O LORD, you have searched me and known me!”
This is the cry of the Psalmist in Psalm 139:1, a declaration that precedes the process of self-discovery that follows. A discovery that “self” is known before it knows, and knows only in relation to the One who knew first and last and forever. It is from our place in the same process that we can pray the following prayer for ourselves and for our sisters and brothers today.
Lord, my God and my loving Father, you have made me to know you, to love you, to serve you, and thereby to find and to fulfill my deepest longings in the life you know. I know that you are in all things, and that every path can lead me to you.
But of them all, there is one especially by which you want me to come to you. Since I will do what you want of me, I pray you, send your Holy Spirit to me: renew my mind, show me what know of me and know for me. In my heart and in my hands, give me the determination to do it, and to do it with all my soul to the end. Jesus, I trust in you and your steadfast love. Amen