I have a physical body and it’s sitting in this chair now. I admit in honesty that my body is finite. I can’t do everything I want to do. I can’t do everything that others want me to do. I can’t meet everyone’s demands of me. Even my physical body can’t look like the images that are put before me every day. Thank you for bodily weakness because it leads me to depend on you and rest in you because I need you to sustain my physical body.

 I have a human spirit – the me that no one can see. There’s a mysterious spirit-side to me that’s more than just my body and it’s there that I am tempted to define who I am, gain my significance and identity. I affirm that at the core of who I am, I am not a [student], I am not an [employee],I am not a [pastor] or [leader]. At the core of who I am, my real identity, I am not even a [son or daughter], or a [husband or wife], or a [father or mother]. I am not at the core, a [boyfriend or girlfriend]. I am not what my parents told me I was, I am not how they treated me. I am not what I tell myself I am under my breath every day. I am not significant for what I do or who I know. At the core of who I am, I am neither a Democrat nor Republican. I am not defined by my abilities and talents, my goodness, or even my badness.

 Instead my identity is found solely in you, O God. I am in need of you because I am constantly tempted to present my false self to you and others. In pride or fear I try to prop myself up, but my performance is not central because Christ performed in my place. It is not my sweat and blood that is most important; it’s his sweat and blood poured out of him for me. I affirm the truth that I am your beloved, created for union with you. Because of Christ’s work on the cross and his resurrection, I have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. Before the foundation of the world you chose me. You have forgiven me and declared me to be holy and blameless before you through Christ. You adopted me into your family, and now I’m treated with all the rights and privileges that you treat your Son with. You redeemed me – you bought me back and liberated me through the blood of your Son. I am not an afterthought in your mind. From time eternal I’ve been on your mind. You wooed me. You call me your beloved, the apple of your eye. You have promised me an eternal inheritance that is right now and into the future. And to confirm all of this, you have secured me relationally by giving me your Holy Spirit. But it’s not just about me. Thank you for surrounding me with others who follow Christ, those to whom you speak in the same way.

 This is what you, O God, say about me, and it’s the truest thing about me for eternity.

Adapted from a prayer by John Coe