"Commit your works to the Lord and your plans

will be established" (Proverbs 16:3).

Heavenly Father, my life seems like I'm stuck in a rut, spinning my wheels, and going nowhere. I want things to change, but change scares me. Yet I know that, while expressing that desire, my "want to" has been crippled by years of settling for the status quo and mediocrity. Stepping into the unknown frightens me, yet plain common sense tells me that without doing so, change will never come. Even more, I'm sure that trusting you for the future without being able to know beforehand how the particulars will work out is the essence of faith. I want to trust you; I do trust you, but help me, Lord Jesus, to trust you more. Give me your wisdom to know the way forward and to plan the steps. Impart to me your boldness and courage to put one foot in front of the other with assurance that I am walking into the destiny you have planned for me before the beginning of the world. Remind me often that your eyes have seen my total existence and that there is nothing about me that you do not know intimately. You created me; therefore, before I ever breathed, spoke, or walked, you knew me and the plans you had for my life (Jeremiah 29:11). Keep my mind steady through anxious thoughts. Solidify my heart with all that is morally pure and upright. Lead me in the way that glorifies you and shapes me into the image of Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Whisper to me in the hard places that you are with me and will never forsake me (Psalm 139:1-24). Today, with my heart set, by your grace, through your Spirit, I'm taking the first step into the change that is so necessary. In Jesus' name, Amen.

by Jack Manor