Come Holy Spirit,

Help me to see and believe in my heart of hearts that indulgence in my own desires can never bring me the kind of deep peace and contentment that I long for.

Help me to see the truth of that. And to see it as a dead end. And abandon it as a strategy.

To help me to see the pattern. of becoming excited about some new shiny thing. Something that I desire and indulging in it. Experiencing some kind of brief pleasure or a contentment. before it just melts away into a deeper thirst.

And I feel the poison of indulging my own desires. That makes me feel even further away. from the true peace in the true contentment that I long for.

help me to see that pattern and recognize it the very start when the desire is kindling in me. Help me to bring instead. My thirst and my desires to you. help me to grow and prayer and the capacity to hold those desires. In your presence, lift them up to you. Surrender to you.

Help me to see the beauty and the possibility of. surrendering those desires to you, trusting you. Hoping in you. And that trust and hope expressing itself in love. And loving obedience to you. and loving and humble service to others.

help me to see the possibilities and the promise. of that kind of life in a way that draws me toward it. to choose it more and more for myself. Help me to.. pay attention to other people's stories who have lived that way, and their testimony about how.. It leads to incredible richness. intimacy with you.

It leads to a deep satisfaction and peace and contentment. and help me to also. just pay attention to the beautiful effects that their lives have had in other people. The legacies they have.

help all of that enthrall my heart and my mind, so that more and more. I choose and I want to choose that kind of life for myself. In your mercy and in your grace. help me in this. Amen.