Completely...

I give myself completely to you, God.

Assign me a place in your creation.

Let me suffer for you.

Give me work that you would have me do.

Give me many tasks

Or help me stand aside while you call others.

Put me forward or humble me.

Give me riches or let me live in poverty.

I freely give all that I am

And all that I have to you.

And now, Holy God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

I heed your call to live in covenant with you,

Through Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Covenant Prayer above comes from John Wesley's new year's Covenant service. Over the years, I have made a practice of praying it as the new year begins to remind myself of the demands of covenant living. God's covenant promise, born of the words "I shall be your God and you shall be my people," does not simply assure us of our Lord's love and care. God's covenant also calls us to respond with a promise of our own to live as covenant people.

If we're honest, the words of Wesley's prayer are not easy ones. They demand that we surrender ourselves... completely in service of our Lord! Our desires, our dreams, our wishes belong to God in order that God's will be done. Few of us desire to suffer, few of us are ready to stand aside when others are called to pick up our tasks, few of us wish to be humbled, few of us are willing to choose poverty over riches. Yet to live in covenant with God calls us to be ready to respond to whatever God asks of us.

This coming Tuesday at presbytery, we will have opportunity to renew our baptismal vows and with those vows recommit to living as God's covenant people. In preparation, let us take some time over the next few days to ponder God's covenant call.

Are we ready to give ourselves completely over to God's covenant call? Or will we hold something back?

New Year's blessings,