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 Syro-
phoenician 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.