Lift my desires

A pair of old kitchen scales where the heavy, murky-colored stones piled on one dish are being quietly lifted off one by one by a small bird, while a single clean feather settles onto the empty dish, showing low desires exchanged for lighter, purer ones.

God, you don’t want anyone who has done wrong to die. Look on me with mercy as I dare to call on you now. Let your Holy Spirit make my loves pure and lift my desires higher, so that my prayer pleases you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

Ezekiel 33:11 (BSB)

Adapted from Samuel Johnson, Prayers and Meditations (1785), in plain words. The verse is from the Berean Standard Bible (public domain). Drawing: Mutter.