Truly Needed Prayer

For some reason, lately I've been very irritable, bitter, sad, and angry.  I don't feel like I'm the same person.  I don't know if it's because I'm angry at myself for being inpatient or making poor decisions, or because I'm too frustrated by everything.  But anyhow, my dad sent a really great prayer and reminder that I really need right now:

Teach me, my Lord, to be sweet and gentle in all the events of my life, in disappointments, in the thoughtlessness of others, in the insincerity of those I trusted, in the unfaithfulness of those on whom I relied. Let me forget myself so that I may enjoy the happiness of others. Let me always hide my little pains and heartaches so that I may be the only one to suffer from them. Teach me to profit by the suffering that comes across my path. Let me so use it that it may mellow me, not harden or embitter me; that it may make me patient, not irritable; that it may make me broad in my forgiveness, not narrow or proud or overbearing. May no one be less good for having come within my influence; no one less pure, less true, less kind, less noble, for having been a fellow traveler with me on our journey towards eternal life. As I meet with one cross after another, let me whisper a word of love to You. May my life be lived in the supernatural, full of power for good, and strong in its purpose of sanctity. Amen.

Meanwhile, something else in a book I've been reading that's been making me think:

"You don't need the Holy Spirit.  You don't need the Holy Spirit if you are merely seeking to live a semi-moral life and attend church regularly.  You can find people of all sorts in many religions doing that quite nicely without Him.  You only need the Holy Spirit's guidance and help if you truly want to follow the Way of Jesus Christ.  You only need Him if you desire to "obey everything" He commanded and to teach others to do the same (Matt. 28:18). You only need the Holy Spirit if you have genuinely repented and believe.  And you only need the HOly Spirit if you understand that you are called to share in Christ's suffering and death, as well as His resurrection (Rob. 8:17). Paul demonstrated this when he wrote,

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.  We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.  For we who are alive are always begin given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body (2 Cor. 4:7).  

If you truly believe and have turned from the way you were headed and joined a different Way of living, then you desperately need the Holy Spirit.  You know you cannot live this Way without the Spirit in you." - "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan.