In truth, this is essentially the practice of hisbodedus. In hisbodedus, we sit before Hashem and express to Him what’s in our hearts. We tell the Creator our yearning to overcome our sins, cravings, and negative emotions, and we share with Him our desire to become more pure and holy. We talk about our struggles in avodas Hashem, and we make a firm commitment to start over every time we fall.
Thus, hisbodedus is a form of mesiras moda’ah through which we give over our actions to Hashem and rely on His compassion. Of course, we must try to bring our yearning into fruition throughout the day. But no matter what happens – even if we fail to fulfill the things that we spoke about in hisbodedus – we must know that we’ve done our part. By expressing our true intentions to Hashem ahead of time, we can be assured that Hashem has nachas from our avodah and it is considered as if we’ve achieved the things that we davened for.
