A Prayer for Thursday, September 11, 2014

Exceed

O God,

Deliver us from arrogance that
would lead us think for even a moment
that we could ever exceed
your expectations of us.
Remind us that even if we
meet your expectations of us
we have only done what
we should have done and
we have done so only
by your grace and by your Spirit.

Help us to exceed
our expectations of ourselves.
Help our commitment to you
to become ever more comprehensive and
our commitment to others
to become ever more complete.
Help us not to have
low expectations of ourselves
so that to meet or exceed them
requires little of us;
help us instead to have
high expectations of ourselves
so that to meet or exceed them
requires much of us—indeed,
so that to meet or exceed them
requires our acknowledgement that
we could never have met or exceeded them
without your help.

Let our growth
in our love for you,
in our love for others,
in our trust in you,
in our obedience to you,
in our acceptance of your forgiveness,
in our offering of forgiveness to others,
in our personal integrity,
and
in our sacrificial service
be such that we find it
impossible to congratulate ourselves
for what we have accomplished and
possible only to praise you.

Amen.