Overview
The Surrender Trilogy prayer is composed of a prologue and three main prayers:
The Pledge to Trust, Follow, and Serve the Lord
The Lord's Prayer
The Expanded Prayer of Jabez
The Prayer of Abandonment
Links – The Prayer Steps of Christian Faith
The glue that holds these prayers together—the links that lead from one prayer to the next—form an outline of the Christian path to full maturity as a disciple of Jesus Christ. These short links use the Praying Continually Prayer, with a different ending for each link that expresses our desire to give ourselves completely to God, and asks Him to do whatever is necessary to totally fill us with the joyful fire of His merciful love.
Step 1 – Empty me, Cleanse me Holy Spirit, of anything that is not of You.
For this to happen, God needs our permission to totally empty us and cleanse us of all remnants of our old selves. Doing this ourselves would be like trying to do a heart transplant on ourselves—it is absolutely impossible. Only God can "remove our heart of stone" so He can "give us a new heart and put a new spirit in us ", and with this prayer we give Him permission to do it. Because each person must make the decision to do this, we pray this prayer only for ourselves.
"Empty Me"
John the Baptist's message and Christ's ongoing proclamation was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." To repent means to recognize the sinfulness of our old selfish ways, and our own inability to purge ourselves of our self-serving desires. Only God who created us can fix us, but He gave us free will, so He will only start the process of emptying us of our prideful and selfish desires if we ask Him to.
"Cleanse Me"
After you empty a container of spoiled, rotten food, the container still reeks from the stench of its previous contents, and any fresh food added to the container will immediately go bad. The container has to be scrubbed clean with plenty of hot, soapy water, and maybe even a little bleach. The same thing applies to us. Even after God has emptied our hearts and souls of prideful selfishness, we are still filled with the stench of our former life, our "old self." Once again, God needs our permission and cooperation to clean us out, and only He can do it effectively and completely, leaving not even a speck of the pride, selfishness and filth of our old lives behind.
Step 2 – Fill us, Guide us, Make us Holy, Humble, Wise, Bold and Compassionate Holy Spirit.
As God empties and cleanses us of all our prideful, selfish desires, this provides room for the tiny ember of His Holy Spirit we received through Baptism to burst into flame and expand to fill that empty space. In agreement with God's commands in the Bible, we also state our desire and intention to be holy, humble, wise, bold and compassionate, and again give permission to the Holy Spirit to do whatever is necessary to accomplish this in us. We can pray this prayer for our families, friends and all Christians, so we now use the plural “us”.
"Fill Us"
Even God can't add anything to something that is already full, so as long as we were "full of ourselves," there was no space for the tiny spark of the Holy Spirit living within us to expand. Now that God has emptied us and cleansed us, there is room for the Holy Spirit to burst into flames, expanding to fill our hearts and souls.
"Guide Us"
Even though we are full of the Holy Spirit, we still have free will, so we need to continually commit to seeking God's guidance on everything we do.
"Make us Holy, Humble, Wise, Bold and Compassionate"
We also need to express our desire and intention to cooperate with God every step of the way as He carries out His plan to perfect us by making us holy, humble, wise, bold and compassionate. For example, in the book of James we are encouraged to ask for wisdom, and assured that God "gives generously to all without finding fault", as long as we do not doubt that God will do this.
Step 3 – Strengthen us, Protect us, Unify us, and Fill us with the Joyful Fire of Your Merciful Love Holy Spirit.
Our old selves, the world and the devil will not be happy about this change in us, and will fight to undo these changes, so we pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and protect us in our new life in the Spirit, and to bring all Christians together in the unity of the Holy Spirit. By now we will also realize that we have no idea what the love God is talking about is, and that our selfish version of what we call “love” is nowhere close to God's concept of love, so we are ready to pray for God to fill us with the joyful fire of His merciful love.
Step 4 – Make me a feather on Your breath Holy Spirit, that I may be Christ’s light and a fountain of His living water for those around me!
As God fills us with the totally self-sacrificial love demonstrated by Christ’s suffering and death for us on the cross, we are ready to be a feather on God’s breath, immediately obeying whatever He tells us to do, even if it doesn’t make sense to us. We are also ready to share God’s divine love with others just as Christ commands us to do. The joyful fire of God’s merciful love that shone out of Jesus is now a beacon shining out of us, attracting others to His warm loving glow; and the living water that flowed out of Christ is a fountain of His living water flowing out of us (John 7:38), bringing peace and joy to those around us.
The Surrender Trilogy prayer is composed of a prologue and three main prayers:
The Pledge to Trust, Follow, and Serve the Lord
The Lord's Prayer
The Expanded Prayer of Jabez
The Prayer of Abandonment
Links – The Prayer Steps of Christian Faith
The glue that holds these prayers together—the links that lead from one prayer to the next—form an outline of the Christian path to full maturity as a disciple of Jesus Christ. These short links use the Praying Continually Prayer, with a different ending for each link that expresses our desire to give ourselves completely to God, and asks Him to do whatever is necessary to totally fill us with the joyful fire of His merciful love.
Step 1 – Empty me, Cleanse me Holy Spirit, of anything that is not of You.
For this to happen, God needs our permission to totally empty us and cleanse us of all remnants of our old selves. Doing this ourselves would be like trying to do a heart transplant on ourselves—it is absolutely impossible. Only God can "remove our heart of stone" so He can "give us a new heart and put a new spirit in us ", and with this prayer we give Him permission to do it. Because each person must make the decision to do this, we pray this prayer only for ourselves.
"Empty Me"
John the Baptist's message and Christ's ongoing proclamation was, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." To repent means to recognize the sinfulness of our old selfish ways, and our own inability to purge ourselves of our self-serving desires. Only God who created us can fix us, but He gave us free will, so He will only start the process of emptying us of our prideful and selfish desires if we ask Him to.
"Cleanse Me"
After you empty a container of spoiled, rotten food, the container still reeks from the stench of its previous contents, and any fresh food added to the container will immediately go bad. The container has to be scrubbed clean with plenty of hot, soapy water, and maybe even a little bleach. The same thing applies to us. Even after God has emptied our hearts and souls of prideful selfishness, we are still filled with the stench of our former life, our "old self." Once again, God needs our permission and cooperation to clean us out, and only He can do it effectively and completely, leaving not even a speck of the pride, selfishness and filth of our old lives behind.
Step 2 – Fill us, Guide us, Make us Holy, Humble, Wise, Bold and Compassionate Holy Spirit.
As God empties and cleanses us of all our prideful, selfish desires, this provides room for the tiny ember of His Holy Spirit we received through Baptism to burst into flame and expand to fill that empty space. In agreement with God's commands in the Bible, we also state our desire and intention to be holy, humble, wise, bold and compassionate, and again give permission to the Holy Spirit to do whatever is necessary to accomplish this in us. We can pray this prayer for our families, friends and all Christians, so we now use the plural “us”.
"Fill Us"
Even God can't add anything to something that is already full, so as long as we were "full of ourselves," there was no space for the tiny spark of the Holy Spirit living within us to expand. Now that God has emptied us and cleansed us, there is room for the Holy Spirit to burst into flames, expanding to fill our hearts and souls.
"Guide Us"
Even though we are full of the Holy Spirit, we still have free will, so we need to continually commit to seeking God's guidance on everything we do.
"Make us Holy, Humble, Wise, Bold and Compassionate"
We also need to express our desire and intention to cooperate with God every step of the way as He carries out His plan to perfect us by making us holy, humble, wise, bold and compassionate. For example, in the book of James we are encouraged to ask for wisdom, and assured that God "gives generously to all without finding fault", as long as we do not doubt that God will do this.
Step 3 – Strengthen us, Protect us, Unify us, and Fill us with the Joyful Fire of Your Merciful Love Holy Spirit.
Our old selves, the world and the devil will not be happy about this change in us, and will fight to undo these changes, so we pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen us and protect us in our new life in the Spirit, and to bring all Christians together in the unity of the Holy Spirit. By now we will also realize that we have no idea what the love God is talking about is, and that our selfish version of what we call “love” is nowhere close to God's concept of love, so we are ready to pray for God to fill us with the joyful fire of His merciful love.
Step 4 – Make me a feather on Your breath Holy Spirit, that I may be Christ’s light and a fountain of His living water for those around me!
As God fills us with the totally self-sacrificial love demonstrated by Christ’s suffering and death for us on the cross, we are ready to be a feather on God’s breath, immediately obeying whatever He tells us to do, even if it doesn’t make sense to us. We are also ready to share God’s divine love with others just as Christ commands us to do. The joyful fire of God’s merciful love that shone out of Jesus is now a beacon shining out of us, attracting others to His warm loving glow; and the living water that flowed out of Christ is a fountain of His living water flowing out of us (John 7:38), bringing peace and joy to those around us.