We let the world overwhelm us;
we live too much in continual fear
of the chances and changes of mortal life.
We try too much to get what we can by our own selfish wits,
without considering our neighbor.
We follow too much the ways and fashions of the day,
doing and saying and thinking
anything that comes to mind,
just because there is so much going on around us.
Free us from our selfish interests, and guide us,
good Lord, to see thy way and to do thy will.
Charles Kingsley, 1819-1875, Anglican Priest and social reformer
The Complete Book of Christian Prayer, slightly edited
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What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
prayer & verse 