Could You Pray This Prayer?

While reading aloud Elisabeth Elliot: Joyful Surrender to my daughters today, I came across a prayer that Elisabeth copied into her Bible.  She had copied it from a biography written about Betty and John Stam, missionaries to China that were killed in the Communist Revolution.  The story of the Stams inspired many to become missionaries, including Elisabeth Elliot. 

John and Betty Stam

Elisabeth Elliot had actually met Betty Stam and Betty's parents as a child, when Elisabeth's parents hosted the missionaries at their home.  Elisabeth was touched by the tragic death of Betty and her husband John and the story of their martyrdom.  She copied this prayer into her Bible when she was only a young girl:

"Lord, I give up all my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life.  I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine, forever.  Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit.  Use me as Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now and forever."

Can we say that same prayer?

Could we say it knowing that the future might be like the Stam's?  Could we say it knowing that we might have to endure what Elisabeth Elliot herself endured, the loss of her husband Jim Elliot to the Auca Indians of Ecuador?

Neither the Stams nor the young Elisabeth knew what God's plans were when they wrote those words.  And yet, I don't believe they would have changed that prayer or their devotion to serve Christ.