Surrender—putting one’s life at God’s disposal—is the most truly Christian prayer. It is the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane—”Not my will, but thine.” It is the heart of the prayer Jesus taught the apostles—”Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” It is the prayer of Francis of Assisi—”Not so much to be loved as to love, to be forgiven as to forgive, to be served as to serve…Oh divine Master, make us instruments of thy peace.”

We cannot suppose that any of us will reach the point where we can pray such a prayer by habit. Perhaps in a moment of great sacrifice, in a personal Gethsemane, God helping, we will abandon ourselves to God.