This last weekend during the second message of our sync series we talked about why “kneeling” is an image we have for prayer. Prayer always involves, “kneeling” before God, submitting our hopes and dreams in order to take up God’s hopes and dreams for our lives. It is always, “not my will, but yours.”
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement understood that very well, and modeled that in his own prayer life. If you were to visit Wesley’s house today [a historical site in England] you would find two kneel holes in his closet where he knelt to pray everyday. He also carried this emphasis into a famous prayer that is an important part of our Methodist heritage and tradition.
During this year, one of my goals is to pray this prayer every day.
I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
