Fill My Heart

As I give thanks to You at the end of the day or greet this day with hope, the one thing lately that I want above all else is to live with a full heart.  The one thing I fear most is passing through what’s left of my days with sterile laughter, superficial comfort, or counterfeit gladness.

I don’t want to say, “I love you” and not mean it.  I don’t want see your handiwork in all its glory and not be moved by it.  I don’t want to chase a life of ease and catch up to an empty heart.

So I come to You, knowing there’s no one who can fill my life with that kind of love, or free my soul from that kind of passionless bondage, like You do.  And I pray that just as the morning sun fills the earth with light even on a cloudy day like today, that You would do what only You can do:

Dear God, take this heart of mine and fill it.

Fill my heart with radical patience.

Give me the tenacity to change the world because I was willing to wait longer for it to change.  Make me a steadfast extremist – willing to put up with more irritations or more inconveniences without a desire to get even.  Give me the annoying capacity to overlook offenses again and again for the sake of a greater prize.

Fill my heart with heretical kindness.

In a world that preaches that goodness has to be earned, I want to be the unbeliever.  I want to go first.  I want to do something that’s dripping with kindness (not just feel it), expecting nothing in return.

Fill my heart with glad security.

Take away all jealousy, insecurity, or fears of inferiority.  Free me from dependence on material possessions or the desire to be like someone else (other than You).  And with a content heart, give me the grace to truly rejoice with those who rejoice, regardless of my own troubles or sadness.

Fill my heart with silent accomplishment.

I want to succeed – to fulfill my purpose or accomplish my goals.  Give me the power to do that, and the wisdom to give You the glory for it.  More than that, give me the heart to listen to and celebrate the victories and success stories of others.

Fill my heart with humble unimportance.

Somehow give me the divine strength to esteem others as more important.  To defer to their views and work with them in unity.  To take the time to be concerned with their needs and interests.

Fill my heart with sensitive awareness.

Help me to go from hall monitor to heart monitor.  I don’t want to just know how others feel, I want it to matter.  In a world of honking horns and high-class jerks, help me to be thoughtful, considerate and self-controlled.

Fill my heart with abandoned servanthood.

Help me walk away from my own possessions in order to meet the needs of those who have little.  Help me set aside my plans in order to make it better for someone else.  Help me see past my rights and entitlements in order to ease the pain and sorrow of someone else.

Fill my heart with tempered strength.

Give me power from on high to laugh at myself, and not take myself too seriously.   Give me supernatural wisdom to recognize that neither I nor my circumstances are as important as my ago would lead me to believe.  Give me revelation to know when I’m about the fly off the handle and the fortitude to handle it instead.

Fill my heart with lavish forgetfulness.

Help me to be so aware of my own failures that I don’t have time to remember the failures of others.  Help me be so intoxicated with your forgiveness of my stupid choices that I completely forget the silly betrayals or disappointments I get from others.  Help me thank you abundantly by remembering that we’re all a work in progress – even the people who greatly offended me in the past.

Fill my heart with quiet purity.

Shut my mouth forever if all I can talk about is someone else’s sin.  Fill my heart forever with sadness if all I can ever laugh it is the moral folly of others.  Protect me from a testimony that revels more in how I once was lost than in how now I am found by Your grace.

Fill my heart with delightful honesty.

Help me find my greatest pleasure in meaning what I say and fulfilling my commitments.  Help me discover my truest self as a man of integrity.  Help me to live in the wonder of being aligned with Your heart and in harmony with your truth.

Fill my heart with protective courage.

I want to be the one who runs to the battlefield when a brother or sister is wounded.  I want to have whatever valor it takes to cover them when the world or other believers attack them.  I want to have the strength to carry them when they can no longer carry themselves.

Fill my heart with creative faith.

Open my eyes to so believe the best in others that I see them – not as what they are today, but as what You are creating in them for tomorrow.  Help me make the mistake of trusting others too much if it means I avoid being too suspicious or cynical.  Help me to risk disappointment or rejection like You did to believe the best about me.

Fill my heart with steadfast confidence.

In a world that believes that failure is fatal, I want to be the last man standing for hope.  Riveted to your faithfulness, love and power, make me an unshakable witness to the fact that you’re not finished with me yet.  And let me apply that confidence to the shortcomings of others as well.

Fill my heart with stubborn endurance.

Help me stand faithful to my post, even in the most violent of battles.  Give me the persistence to launch today’s advance, regardless of yesterday’s results.  And just as You endured the cross because you saw my need, help me to see past my own hurts to meet the needs of others – even when they’re not asking me to.

 

What I’m saying, if I haven’t told You enough, is that I don’t have the capacity to love like You do. But I want it.  So on this day, and the next, fill my heart with that love that exceeds all other affections.

Fill my heart… with You.

Tagged as: Endurance, Hope, Humility, Kindness, Love, Patience