The Second Line

A friend of mine speaks of the Wesley Covenant Prayer as "a total capitulation."  Old timers of a faith era from the past might use words like "total surrender," or "abandonment."  The old gospel hymn sung often in days past in many places as an invitational hymn has the lines, "I surrender all, all to Jesus, I surrender, I surrender all."  Such words take us to the very heart of this covenant prayer which gets prayed often and, most likely, is taken too lightly,  

The second line of the prayer simply says to God, "Put me to what Thou wilt."  This is a hard word for most of us, but an even harder word for the planner who dwells in us.  Few of us have time in our schedule for that kind of abandonment.  Our day planner does not allow for interruptions, distractions, impromptu opportunities, and the spontaneous.  To tell God to put us to whatever He wishes is to put all of what we have planned for today and the rest of our life at risk.  As we pray Wesley's Covenant Prayer, we should be prepared to ask ourselves if we are truly ready and open to such a life?  

One of the roads described in the Scripture is the road of the Good Samaritan  (Luke 10:25-37).  The priest and the Levite could not stop to help the man left for dead on the road.  Perhaps, they were afraid robbers lurked nearby waiting on more easy prey.  Or, perhaps, their day planners were too filled and important people and meetings were waiting on them.  Though they and others saw them as righteous, they were not willing to be put in the role of being a servant.  Only the Samaritan  who was surely seen by the listeners of the parable as a sinner was willing to be "put to whatever Thou wilt."  One of the questions we must ask of ourselves as we pray this part of the prayer has to do the importance of what we do with our life.  Is doing what we want to do with our life ever more important than doing what God wants to do with it?  This is the hard question of the second line and one we need to answer if we dare to pray it.