The way You have laid open before me is an easy way,

    compared with the hard way of my own will

    which leads back to Egypt and to bricks without straw.

If You allow people to praise me, I shall not worry.

If You let them blame me, I shall worry even less.

If You send me work, I shall embrace it with joy.

    It will be rest to me because it is Your will.

 

Only save me from myself.

Save me from my own, private, poisonous urge 

   to change everything, to act without reason, 

   to move for movement’s sake,

   to unsettle everything that You have ordained.

 

Let me rest in Your will and be silent.

Then the light of Your joy will warm my life.

Its fire will burn in my heart and shine for Your glory.

This is what I live for.  Amen, amen.

 

 

____________________________

 

 

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
    you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    surely I have a delightful inheritance.
I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
    even at night my heart instructs me.
I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
    With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
    my body also will rest secure,
 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
    nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.