Pat’s article

A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt,

rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

Have you ever thought about what it really means to surrender to God’s will? In our world today, especially here in the West, we work so hard to make money, to have security, to be comfortable, maybe to be famous – even if that only means being a big fish in the small pond in which we live.

In the prayer above, however, we are called to be used by God in whatever way God decides – even if that means giving up wealth, notoriety, and comfort in order to be the right tool for God’s purpose. What an amazing testament of faith it is when we can pray this prayer in full and complete sincerity. However, we’re not all at that place. In fact, even if some of us are able to really mean this prayer when we say it, it might not be a state of mind in which we stay. But that’s the journey we are on, to move closer to the point where we are always living so as to be fully in the will of God.

The word we use for the spiritual growth we make toward this goal is Discipleship. As we become more faithful disciples through prayer, worship, giving, and serving others, we are transformed by the Holy Spirit into someone who moves ever closer to God’s vision for us. I hope and pray that each day we live is one more in a long line of days in which it gets easier to surrender all we are and all we have to the perfect will of God. God bless!