Consume My Will

Consume: • (usually be consumed) (of a feeling) absorb all of the attention and energy of (someone) 

That is my utmost desire this hour. To be consumed by God. So consumed I no longer exist to seek my will. I want my will consumed in God's will. Totally absorbed in all my attention, all my affections and all my energy. Consumed. 

This will not come easy. Matt has strong desires and inclinations. He prefers the easy path, the secure path, the safe path and the rewarding path. Matt shuns things like sacrifice, risk, difficulty, danger and adversity. If I genuinely and sincerely mean this desire to be consumed that will only happen when Matt is absorbed so much in and by Jehovah that my will pales in comparison. It means a whole new level of surrendering. It means a dying to self. It also means a forever relinquishing rights over my life and control over my future. 

I pray this simple prayer with all my heart in this moment. 

Lord, 

I'm not much. I don't have much to offer You who has everything. You certainly don't NEED me. You want me though. For reasons I will never understand You loved me enough to die for me. You love enough to lavish me with grace. I can never repay that. I have nothing of value to offer you. I am not a wealthy man in money or possessions. My talents are average at best. 

What I can offer You is all of me. I want to be totally absorbed in You. I offer my life as an instrument in Your hands. I willfully lay my life and will before You as a living sacrifice to do with as You please. 

I do not ask for riches, fame or prominence. I only ask that I be effective wherever You plant me. I ask that You would be glorified by the offering of my life and will. I know how easily I get discouraged and distracted. So I ask You to consume all of me. All of my will. I want You to absorb all that is Matt Edwards for whatever purpose You design. I plead for You to accept this humble offering and to answer this prayer. May I never take up my life or my will again. 

I ask You to absorb all my attention. May my mind be on You continually and Your truth. I ask You to inspire new revelation of Yourself to me, new things to preach and teach from Your word and new things to write about this and all the remaining days of my life. 

Help me be content in whatever lot You ordain for me. May I be consumed with the desire to be faithful to You in Your call whether grand or small. My flesh will not go easy. Please grant me courage to die to self to become more fully alive to You. 

O mighty Master, please consume me. I ask You to absorb my passion and my energy. I ask You for the supernatural energy to do the work of more than one man. I ask for strength and vigor all my days to the end to be absorbed in the knowledge of You and the fulfillment of the work You call me to do. 

Then, when You are ready, I trust You to call me home. Until then please get out of me as much as is possible from this day to that. 

In Jesus' name, amen. 

Romans 12:1 (NKJV) 
¹  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which isyour reasonable service.