Determined to make the good happen

In Morning Praise today we sang the hymn “Take my hands, Lord , make them as Your own.” 

That sparked in me the following prayer:

                Take my intelligence, Lord! Use it to further Your Kingdom here on earth

and may I fully cooperate with you in doing so, being as determined as was

the Greek, a Syrophoenician woman in today’s Gospel, (Mk 7:24-30).

                Take my intuitiveness, O Lord! Use it to respond to another person’s need for

love, affirmation, understanding and hope and may I take the initiative to  actively

 be involved with You in making this happen.

                Take my heart, O Lord! Use it to transform ugliness into beauty, hatred into love,

fear into courage, sorrow into joy and may I not hold back in this work of love. 

Take my natural and learned skills, O Lord!  Use them to make a difference in the

world and may I have the determination of the Syrophoenician woman to  do what

 needs to be done to make this difference come to be.  

Take my leadership skills, developed, underdeveloped and yet-to-be developed!

Use these skills, O Lord,  to transform  light into darkness, order into chaos, hope into

despair,confusion into clarity. May I not use shyness, self-effacement or false
humility to block the good You want to accomplish through me.

Take my will, O Lord, and make it Your own to bring about Your Father’s will on

earth as in heaven.

Lord, I want to be firm in my commitment to allow You, and to cooperate with You,

in the use of my gifts:  my intelligence, my intuitiveness, my efficiency, my leadership

 capabilities-- all my skills, known and unknown to me-- for Your honor and glory, to

 build Your Kingdom, to make the Gospel live, to empower others and myself to live

 life fully in Your grace and through Your Spirit.

What is your prayer to the Lord? And what do you need from God to be as determined as was

the Syrophoenician woman who courageously approached Jesus to ask that her daughter be

healed and did not back off when Jesus was reluctant to respond to her request.