Wesley's Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with who you will; 

put me to doing, put me to suffering; 

let me be employed for you or laid aside for you;

exalted for you or brought low for you;

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 your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Sweet Lord, 

My throat catches on "let me be laid aside for you." I'm not there yet, Lord. Yielding all things to your pleasure and disposal. I think that you don't love me as much when you lay me aside for you as when you employ me for you. I know its not true. The hurt of being laid aside is a good kind of hurt. The tugging of the attachment to being employed for you. You have something much better than employment for me. I get You, forever. I settle and seek the lesser love, missing the far greater thing, the chance to offer all of myself to you. To be not my own but yours. If I am yours, you use me or don't as you wish. Take all in me that is not yoet yours, all that holds onto the let me be employed for you and is saddened by being laid aside for you. The far better thing is that it is for you. You are enough. You are enough even when you lay me aside. Detach me from my self and my identity, attach me to you. Detach me from people that I seek to prove my significance and worthiness and usefulness, attach me to Christ. Let there be no more me to cling to because I am so fully yours so deeply one with you that it makes no difference to me whether I am employed or laid aside, full or empty, doing or suffering. I love you. Amen