The Wesley Push

Breathing more and more of the Wesley Covenant Prayer into our spiritual systems takes us more deeply into the places of the soul where spiritual roots have been put down in the nurturing dirt of the spirit.  It is not that we are ignorant of some important things about spiritual nurture, but is to say that it is easy to focus on some disciplines at the expense of others.  As the Apostle James reminds us, the inner expressions of faith are important, but our service to others cannot be ignored.  As we know from the days of our beginning to walk with Christ, it is important to balance faith and work.   

A few words from the prayer point us in the right direction.  "Put me to doing," is an important word in the prayer.  Faithfulness to Christ takes us deep into our inner life, but it also takes us to doing, to being involved with those who are suffering, and to standing alongside of those whose needs seem to be forgotten by the well-doers.  Couch potatoes are not just those who are addicted to the screens of our life, but they are also those who can always seem to find a reason to sit on the sidelines instead of getting into the fray of of life's struggles.  

As we pray, "Put me to doing," it is imperative we have open minds.  It is imperative that we do not limit God in terms of what He can ask us to do.  If we expect Him to lead us into getting a shovel we have never used and go to a place of digging where we have never been, we will not be surprised.  Once again, the prayer is not about doing a certain thing which is inside our comfort zone, but doing whatever it is that in His will for us to do.  Praying the Wesley Prayer is about being willing to do what God wants us to do and not what we choose to do.  There is a difference!