St. Paul's Church, Chippenham

As we start 2009 we are expecting to use this prayer in our churches, at our services on the 4th January.  It is known as the Methodist Covenant Prayer and it traditionally used by Methodists as they re-commit themselves to Christ and his Church at the beginning of a New Year.

I am no longer my own but yours.
Put me to what you will,
Rank me with whom you will;
Put me to doing, put me to suffering;
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
Exalted for you or brought low for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty,
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
You are mine and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

I am aware that it is a very demanding and daunting prayer – and I am a great believer that we should be honest in what we say to God (in prayer)!  But we also need to have something to aim at – a  faith that is worth living (and dying) for!  In this prayer we offer our whole lives to God – we have that sense of being totally reliant on him – we come to him with hands open that he might fill us and equip us.

Christians acknowledge that we belong to Christ.  It is his choice how we are to live – clearly we can affect some of the things that happen to us – we make choices day by day.  But ultimately we know that our times are in his hands.

We offer the God who gives us the gift of life – and in whose image we are made (Psalm 139) – the gift of our lives.  We want to be obedient to him and what he wants for us in this world.  And this is to be our free choice.  God breathes his life into us – we choose to live that life for him and in his power and strength.

And the promised outcome is… that God is ours and we are his – there is complete oneness between our God and those he creates who respond to his will.  You are mine and I am yours.  What a wonderful promise that our Creator God seeks unity of life and purpose with us.

This is a lovely way to start the New Year – enfolded in the love of God and wanting to one with his will for us.  May this prayer be REAL to us all as we start out on another year with God and each other – whatever it may bring!

Simon Tyndall