How one can Pray for Open Arms

This text is a part of the How one can Pray sequence.

Prayer for Open Arms

You might have known as me to open my hand in order that You may fill it. However I’d not open my hand. I held the world tightly and stored my hand shut. I’d not let it go. However, please God, open my hand for me. And don’t solely open my hand, but additionally open my mouth. And never solely my mouth, however my coronary heart additionally.

Grant that I’ll know nothing however You, that I’ll depend all the pieces as loss in comparison with You, and that I’ll attempt to be conformed to You.
—Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

The Attract of Temptation

This seventeenth century prayer captures the struggles of the Christian life in an extremely private method. Believers of each period grapple with God’s command to surrender all the pieces for his sake, even whereas they attempt to know the corresponding promise of better rewards. Jesus himself reminds his disciples, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will discover it” (Matt. 10:39). But when we’re trustworthy, that command stays a problem. In any case, whilst followers of Christ, we reside in a fallen world, surrounded by temptations that vie for our consideration. We usually try and wrest management of our circumstances and to take as a lot from this world as we presumably can.

The writer of this prayer, Jeremy Taylor, knew each the very best and worst this world needed to provide as he moved from a most well-liked pupil at Cambridge and Oxford to a excessive profile place within the Stuart church that included entry to King Charles I. Later, he suffered the ignominy of defeat as his king misplaced his battle with Parliament, and Taylor was imprisoned for his royal connections. After the Restoration, he as soon as once more discovered himself in a preferential place, serving as a bishop in Eire till his dying.

Most of us haven’t skilled the acute highs and lows of Taylor’s life, however we are able to all relate to the vivid instance of the temptation to carry too tightly to the trivial issues of this world. Regardless of our greatest efforts, these trivia stay palpable temptations. Our solely hope in our on-going battle in opposition to these temptations comes from the reworking energy of the Holy Spirit, the divine work of re-orienting our coronary heart’s affections. With out that divine motion, we’re helplessly enthralled by earthly pleasures. We’re incapable of “opening our arms” to obtain what God has promised to present for worry that we would lose what we predict we’ve grasped. And so we pray with Jeremy Taylor that God would “open our arms for us. And [that he would] not solely open [our] hand, but additionally open [our] mouth. And never solely [our] mouth, however [our] coronary heart additionally.” We’re dependent upon divine motion. To ensure that us to mature spiritually, we’d like God to take management of our arms, our mouths, and even our hearts. Taylor will get this, and he articulates that request.

We, as Taylor appears to have grasped, are vulnerable to what we predict we are able to maintain—each figuratively and actually. Not solely that, however we’re additionally at risk of being formed by the very issues we are able to ingest, and we definitely topic ourselves to the phrases and sentiments that come from our mouths. We’d like God to take management of that harmful tongue that may concurrently trigger injury to others and short-circuit our personal maturation. That solely offers a small glimpse into the basis reason behind your complete drawback: our coronary heart. Taylor, thus, begs God to open his coronary heart to divine motion as a result of he is aware of that the place the center goes, the mouth will observe. The place the mouth leads, the arms will definitely obey.

To ensure that us to mature spiritually, we’d like God to take management of our arms, our mouths, and even our hearts.

Jeremy Taylor finishes his prayer by combining three quotations from Paul that summarize the wrestle going through him (and all of us). Paul determines to know nothing however Christ (1 Cor. 2:2), to depend all the pieces as loss for the sake of Christ (Phil. 3:8), and to attempt to be conformed to the picture of Christ (Rom. 8:29). For Taylor, this encapsulates his Christian life. It’s a fact that’s so easy that it may be written in a single sentence, but it stays a colossal problem all through the rollercoaster of life.

Once we discover ourselves on the peak of human energy, having fun with the very best that this world has to supply, we have a tendency to carry on tightly to no matter we are able to grasp. Our mouths are satiated by pleasantries, and our hearts are engrossed by the flashy guarantees of energy. However all of these issues are fleeting. They make guarantees that they can not fulfill. We be taught that each one too nicely when circumstances conspire to push us to the opposite excessive of the human expertise. However we’re sluggish learners. Once we discover ourselves in what looks like the depths of human despair, we frequently lengthy for the very “rewards” that already proved so fleeting—both in our personal expertise or within the clear classes from human historical past. We’d like God’s work in our lives to show us—to permit us to really be taught—that these tempting issues are nugatory in comparison with God himself.

And so we ask with Jeremy Taylor, “Please God, open our arms for us. And don’t solely open our arms, but additionally open our mouths. And never solely our mouths, however our hearts additionally.”

Jonathan W. Arnold is the coeditor with Zachariah M. Carter of Cloud of Witnesses: A Treasury of Prayers and Petitions by way of the Ages.

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