This is a prayer I learned of many years ago, and its words resonated with me. Recently, I spoke this prayer, leaving the details to God and trusting Him simply to grant an outcome that I could be at peace with in a difficult circumstance. I marvel at how His plan ultimately unfolded in a way that exceeded all worldly expectations. This is the prayer as I remember it originally:
Holy Spirit, You who make me see everything and show me the way to reach my ideal,
You who give me the divine gift to forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me,
You who are in all instances of my life with me,
I, in this short dialogue want to thank You for everything, and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from You, no matter how great the material desires may be.
I want to be with You and my loved ones in Your perpetual glory.
Amen.
Pray this prayer for 3 days consecutively without asking for a favor. After the third day, your favor will be granted, no matter how difficult it is. Promise to publish the prayer after your favor is granted.
Thanks to all for your comments. Perhaps I should have included a more thorough preface with my original posting, especially considering I’m new to the community on Christian Forums.
I always make a habit of praying to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus, as I’ve been taught, and as was rightly brought up in some of your comments. Even in speaking the prayer I posted, I prefaced it with my own statement, saying something like “Dear Lord in heaven, I speak this prayer as an expression of my faith, in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ…” I didn’t include my own preamble in my initial post, as I wanted to share the prayer in its original form for others of faith to consider according to their particular beliefs and customs.
I realize it’s unusual for a prayer to address The Holy Spirit directly, but I embraced it as one more channel through which to reach out to God within the larger context of Christian faith. I don’t know the original source, but I’ve run across slightly different versions of this prayer a few times, and it resonated with me at a time of need. My heart tells me its words reflect a sincere declaration of faith, not an attempt to somehow take a shortcut around God’s hierarchy for self-serving purposes. Surely it should not be spoken with the intent of circumventing God’s authority or His will, and surely any attempt to do so would be futile.
In fact, one thing that drew me to this prayer is that it opens not by making any request, but by giving thanks for divine gifts and expressing the need to remain ever connected to God above all else. I believe those declarations are stated first to show their primary importance, and any favor we currently seek is secondary, as are all other worldly concerns. In this way, it seems to speak to the larger plan God has for our lives, which transcends the circumstances of the moment.
With all that said, I wanted to share that my prayers were indeed answered in wondrous fashion. I had been facing a difficult circumstance that lingered in uncertainty for months. I prayed about it many times along the way in my daily prayers, sought advice from knowledgeable friends & family, and explored every worldly option I could think of, but never found a good solution. When things came to a critical point last fall, I spoke the prayer from my post. As I alluded to originally, I did so with the attitude that I would trust God to provide His solution in whatever form it took. I didn’t have specifics in mind of how things should happen, and I was resolved that I would be at peace with the outcome and accept God’s will no matter what. The way that things ultimately transpired far exceeded my hopes of what I thought possible in worldly terms. I could never have orchestrated this chain of events on my own, and it wouldn’t have ended nearly as well if my earlier attempts at resolution been successful. It was a profound reminder of a powerful truth – simply stated: God’s plan is way better than ours! It was a wonderful blessing to see this demonstrated in such dramatic fashion in my life. I posted the prayer not only to fulfill my promise to do so, but because I am moved to proclaim how greatly The Lord has blessed me through this experience. At the same time, I emphasize that my faith rests in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, not just in the words of any specific prayer or ritual.