Help me, Lord,
For I am tortured by my thoughts—
Base thoughts that feast upon ideas they ought to spew.
Secret sins.
Secret sins, indeed!
To say they’re hidden is to lie.
Perhaps from human eye they dance unseen,
But nothing can escape Your penetrating view.

Search me, Lord.
Reveal to me my wickedness,
That it become as vile to me as putrid sore.
Let me see.
Let me see, indeed!
The beauty of Your matchless grace,
And gaze upon Your face, that I may learn
To hate the things You hate and love what You adore.

Fill me, Lord.
O fill me with Your Holy Ghost
Until there be no room for wicked thoughts to cling.
Set me free.
Set me free, indeed!
To fly as if on eagles’ wing.
Unfettered, now I sing a joyful tune
Of adoration to my Savior, Lord, and King!

Written February 21, 2011
Copyright © 2021 Angela Umphers Rueger – All Rights Reserved

I like to review my old journals, to see how God has blessed and answered prayer, and also to see the changes He’s made in me and others. This morning I stumbled upon this poem, written in my journal in 2013. At the time I had just come across it penciled into a spiral notebook. The changes have been many, but the prayer is the same.