Willing

Lord, make me what You will.

I put myself fully into Your hands:

Put me to doing, put me to suffering,

Let me be employed for You, or laid aside for You,

Let me be full, let me be empty,

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and with a willing heart

Give it all to Your pleasure and disposal.

And so we come to the final part of this prayer, the summation, really, of all that has come before. We've prayed all these petitions. Now, we offer them all up together to God as a commitment of who we will be, how we will live in the coming year. But do we offer these prayers grudgingly? Very often many of us sort of drag our feet. "Okay, God, I've said the words, I'm not sure I really mean them, but I'll do this since it seems this is what you want and it's what I've got to do to go to Heaven...but I'm not really on board. You're going to have to convince me. Again."

Is that the way we pray? Honestly, now. Is that the way we pray? Or are we willing to fully pray this last part? How do we give these petitions to God? Freely...with a willing heart. Not under compulsion. We pray these words because we want to. Not because we have to, but because we want to so that these words and this way of life become our heart's desire.

Whatever is our heart's desire, that we will pursue with everything in us. For those of us who are married, remember when you met the person who became your spouse. In those early days, you would do most anything for them. You pursued that person because you wanted them to be part of your life. Hopefully, still today, that desire to build them up and to please them still persists. So what if we took that same passion and put it into our relationship with God? What if we pursued the God-life with everything in us? Freely...and with a willing heart.

God will use in mighty ways people who come with a willing heart. Those first followers of Jesus, the disciples, had no idea what they were getting into, but each of them came with a willing heart. Jesus showed he can use hearts like that, even if they weren't quite sure where it would all lead. Even after the crucifixion, the disciples were confused and heartbroken, but when they saw the Lord raised, they were still willing to go where he sent them. His mission was still their heart's desire. And they freely went—all over the world. Those men turned the world upside down because they came with willing hearts, willing to be used by God wherever they went.

What about us? Are we willing? Do we come freely? Are we able to pray this prayer with our whole hearts, knowing that God will use us when we do? Give it all, everything you have and everything you are, over to the only one who ultimately matters, and then just watch to see how he uses you to change the world.