In Your Hands

Lord, make me what You will.

I put myself fully into Your hands...

I remember when both of my children were born, taking them into my arms for the first time. Shortly after they were born, someone handed me this little bundle of crying joy, placed this new living being into my hands. I remember, especially with Christopher, going home shortly after and being all on our own. What do we do now? And, even more than all that, I remember looking into his eyes and seeing complete trust. Rachel, too. Babies have no option. They can't do anything on their own. They are placed in the hands of their parents to be raised, shaped, molded and cared for.

It's an entirely different thing to pray what we pray next in the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer: "I put myself fully into your hands." Babies are placed in our hands, but this prayer specifically talks about making a choice. We place ourselves into the hands of someone else. We intentionally make ourselves totally dependent on someone else. We give up our choice and allow this one to care for us, nurture us, shape and mold us. I place myself into your hands...fully.

Many times we place ourselves in God's hands...partly. We'll trust God as far as it's comfortable. Or as long as God does with us what we think God ought to do. Or until God calls us to move beyond the boundaries we have established for what we want to do in our life.

But that's not the image this prayer calls us to. Rather, like a trusting infant, we place ourselves in God's hands, trusting that whatever God has for us is better than what we could imagine. Can you picture a baby saying to a parent, "I'm sorry, the formula isn't doing it for me. What I'd really like to have is a steak." No, and not just because a baby can't say the words. The infant instinctively trusts that what the parent provides is exactly what they need. So must be our approach to God. What God brings and provides is exactly what we need. And so we place ourselves in his hands...fully.

Not partially. Not halfway. Not "only for a short time, until it no longer suits me."

Fully. Completely. Wholly.

For without complete trust in God, the rest of this prayer will make absolutely no sense.

What part are you holding back today? What keeps you from praying: "I put myself fully into your hands..."?