A Scary Prayer? | God’s Word Today

Sometimes when you’re reading a book, a single phrase jumps off the page and catches your attention.  It happened to me this week.  I was reading Jill Briscoe’s book The Deep Place Where Nobody Goes, and the phrase that stood out to me was in the middle of a conversation that Jill was having with God.  The phrase? Simply the words “Spend me.”[1]

I thought, “That’s a very courageous request to pray to God—that phrase, ‘Spend me.’  Who knows what God will ask a person to do who prays that? Do I really want God to ‘spend me’?”  And yet, the idea is intriguing.  What would God do with our lives if every day we truly offered every single part of them to Him to use as He wills? What if our only thought in the day was “Lord, take this moment, this energy I have, and use it any way you wish”?

Actually, I don’t know any verse in the Bible that commands us to pray that God would spend us. But the Bible does say that Christ died for all, “that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them” (2 Corinthians 5:15). “You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (2 Corinthians 6:19-20).

When you think about it, isn’t it really a privilege to offer ourselves to God for Him to spend?  Just to think that the great God Who has everything and needs nothing would use puny, insignificant us for His divine purpose!

Okay, so maybe it’s scary for you to think of praying that prayer.  “That means I won’t have any say over what happens in my life,” you reason. Yes, that’s right, for God will be in charge. But don’t think you’ll be wiped out like a sentence the teacher erases off the chalkboard.  If God spends your life, you’ll achieve the purpose for which you were created.  Nothing wasted. Nothing lost.  Everything gained. Yes, Lord, spend me!

[1] Jill Briscoe, The Deep Place Where Nobody Goes (Oxford, UK and Grand Rapids, MI: Monarch Books, 2005), 13.