Reflection & Prayer Prompts: The Created Order of Your Life

These prompts are designed to help you sit with the six principles of the created order and let them work on you. There's no rush. Take what resonates and leave the rest for another time.

Personal Reflection Questions

On Dependence

1. Where in your life have you been trying to generate from within yourself what can only be received from outside? Strength? Love? Worth? Wisdom? What would it look like to receive instead of produce?

2. What's your honest relationship with asking for help? Do you see it as weakness, burden, or something else? Where did that belief come from?

3. If you truly believed that everything you need comes from God and others — not from your own striving — how would tomorrow morning be different?

On Relationship

4. Who knows how you're really doing? Not the surface-level answer, but the actual truth. If no one comes to mind, what does that tell you?

5. What has isolation cost you? Think of a specific season when you tried to handle things alone. What was lost? What might have been different with support?

On Using Resources

6. What talent, ability, or opportunity has God given you that you've been sitting on? Why? What are you waiting for?

7. Where have you confused "trusting God" with avoiding responsibility? Is there somewhere you've spiritualized passivity?

On Obedience

8. Is there a principle you know is true that you've been making an exception for yourself around? Something you've rationalized because it feels too hard or too costly? What would alignment look like?

On Judgment

9. When you think about yourself, what does your inner commentary sound like? Is it curious and kind, or evaluative and harsh? Where did that voice come from?

10. Who have you been judging instead of knowing? A spouse, a friend, a coworker, a family member? What would it look like to approach them with curiosity instead of evaluation?

On Control and Surrender

11. What have you been trying to control that was never yours to control? Write it down. Say it out loud if you can.

12. What's the one thing you actually CAN control in that situation? Your words? Your presence? Your attitude? Your next step? What if you focused all your energy there?

Guided Prayer Language

Use these as starting points. Change the words to make them yours.

A Prayer of Dependence

God, I'm tired of trying to be my own source.

I've been acting like I can generate strength and wisdom and love from nothing, and I've ended up depleted.

I don't want to perform for you. I want to receive from you.

Help me begin tomorrow from dependence, not self-sufficiency. Remind me throughout the day that I can ask — that you want me to ask — that I'm not a burden but a beloved child who's supposed to need you.

I don't know how to do this well yet, but I'm willing to learn.

A Prayer About Judgment

God, I've been playing judge for a long time — of myself, of others, of situations.

It's exhausting. And I know it's not my role.

Help me get out of the judge's chair and back into my actual life. Help me experience things instead of constantly grading them.

I want to be present. I want to be curious. I want to know people instead of evaluating them.

When I catch myself judging, give me the grace to notice it and let it go — without judging myself for judging.

Help me trust that you're the one holding the gavel, and that your judgment is far more gracious than mine.

A Prayer of Surrender

God, I've been trying to control things that aren't mine to control.

[Name them if you can.]

I surrender these to you — not because I don't care, but because holding on so tightly is making me sick.

Give me the serenity to accept what I cannot change. Give me the courage to change what I can. Give me the wisdom to know the difference.

Help me put my energy where it actually belongs: into becoming the kind of person I want to be, into controlling myself rather than everyone and everything around me.

I trust you with what I'm letting go. Even when it's hard. Even when I want to grab it back.

Hold me while I learn to stop holding so tight.

Optional Journaling Prompts

These are invitations, not assignments. Write as much or as little as feels true.

1. Write about a time you tried to do life on your own — without depending on God or others. What happened? What did you learn?

2. Describe the version of yourself who lives in flow — fully present, not judging. What does that person look like? How do they move through a typical day?

3. Write a letter to your inner critic. What do you want to say to the voice that constantly evaluates and condemns you? You don't have to be polite.

4. What are you most afraid would happen if you stopped trying to control [the thing you're holding onto]? Name the fear underneath the control.

5. Write about what you'd do with your life if you fully believed God was the source — that you didn't have to earn, produce, or perform. What would you stop doing? What would you start doing?

A Closing Thought

The created order isn't a measuring stick. It's not a new list of ways to fail.

It's a map. A description of how things work when they work well.

You're not behind. You're not broken. You're in process — and the fact that you're reflecting on this at all is a sign that something is already shifting.

Don't rush. Don't force insight. Just stay curious.

God isn't grading you on this. Neither should you be.