Category: The Power Of Prayer

Anytime I share a prayer in a blog entry, it’s normally one I’ve personally written. But occasionally there are some that come along my way, which I feel moved to also include in here. The following is one of those and it was read at the end of a recovery meeting I attended a few days ago. It’s written in such a way that I feel is more of an affirmation than a prayer, but maybe that’s why I like it so much. I decided to call it a prayer for daily spiritual renewal, as it speaks to my heart quite a bit of how I can refresh my own spiritual journey and recovery from addictions each and every day. I truly hope all of you will enjoy it as much as I have…

“Today, I make a decision to turn the care of my life and my will over to my Higher Power to be built anew: happy, joyous, and free from the bondage of self; relieved of my difficulties, fears, and anxieties so that I may help others and show them this willingness, this love, and this way of life. May I follow my Higher Power’s will for me, always.”

Amen!

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

I’ve never been much of a quitter overall in life, but there are plenty of times lately when I feel like just giving up. Enduring the challenges I’ve faced over the past four years with my health and healing has definitely grinded away a tremendous amount of my fortitude. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me going on days like today when I feel that way is a prayer. Prayer seems to combat any desire that arises to give up, as giving up would only mean going back to an addiction-filled life to numb my pain or ending my life altogether. Neither is an option I really wish to pursue, but on days like today when I don’t understand why my spiritual growth and healing has to be so difficult, they appear very viable. The following is a prayer I actually wrote this morning to help me get through today, and it’s just one of many I’ve used to navigate successfully through any of those difficult days when they’ve happened. So if you should ever feel the desire to give up because of your own pain, it’s my hope you may use this prayer and that it will help you as much as I know it will help me. God bless.

“Dear God, lately it’s been very difficult to keep going. I often think about giving up because of the pain I continue to feel inside. I do my best everyday to put on a smile and make the best of it, but that’s becoming harder and harder to achieve. I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do other than be patient and have faith. But the longer I continue to deal with this pain, the more impatient I become and the more my faith seems to wane. Please strengthen me enough God so that I resist any desire to return to old behaviors that used to numb me every single day. Please also help me resist any urge to take my life because I know that’s not what You would want of me either. I just pray God that You help me make it through whatever it is I’m still going through and that I don’t ever give up. I look forward to when I’m free of this bondage and I thank You for the day when that is meant to happen. Amen.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Acceptance of what life sends our way can often be quite difficult to deal with, especially when it’s not in alignment with our ego. For those like myself who have suffered greatly from addictions, that acceptance tends to frequently be even harder to deal with. There is a great paragraph that I found in my recovery from those addictions that has guided my journey to embracing acceptance a lot more in life. It appears on Page 417 of the 4th Edition of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and reads as follows:

“And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some fact of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes.”

Finding acceptance with everything in life is a process for all of us though, whether we’ve suffered from addictions or not. By praying for it regularly, our lives can and will become filled with an incredible amount more of serenity. For this reason, I’ve rewritten the excerpt above into a prayer for everyone to use. If you should ever find yourself struggling with having this trait in any aspect of your life, I truly hope you will end up using this prayer to help you find more of it…

“Dear God, I know it’s said that acceptance can be the answer to all my problems in life. Well lately I have a problem that deals with __________________, and I haven’t been very serene because of it. I pray You help me to accept this problem as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this very moment. If nothing, absolutely nothing, truly happens in Your world by mistake, then please help me to come to acceptance by seeing and learning the lesson in this. I also ask that You help me to concentrate not so much on how I think this problem should be resolved, as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes. And thank you God for whatever path You end up guiding me on to get there. Amen.”

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson