The Cloud of Unknowing

I love the first line of this passage. "Lift up your heart to God with a meek stirring of love; and intend God himself and none of his created things." First of all "lift up your heart to God" is just such a beautiful picture. It reminds me of when you see people singing and praising in worship at church and they have their hands lifted up as a sign of surrender. The thought of pretty much handing God your heart is such a surrendering idea. I also loved how the word meek was used in this passage. I think it can be taken in a few different ways. One definition of the word is "humbly patient." Oh wow how patience is not something America is good at haha Lifting up your heart to God with a humbly patient stirring of love...that is not as easy as it sounds. Another definition for meek is compliant. In this sentence that would be "with a compliant stirring of love." So that would be not only surrendering but also obeying. And the last definition for meek is gentle or kind. "lift up your heart to God with a [gentle] stirring of love." I love this version of the excerpt. I like to think of God as being very gentle, so to gently stir your love for him just makes you that much closer to him. The next part of the sentence says "intend God himself and none of his created things." I took this to mean that one should pray for the will of God and not for your own worldly desires. He has such a greater picture and path of our lives than we could possibly fathom. So idealy, praying for him to work in your life and have his will be done is so much more effective.
Obviously this whole passage is really profound but I really wanted to unpack that excerpt and just dig into the meaning behind the words.