Thursday, March 5, 2015

A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition

Mark 8:31-38

I hope you have been remembering to pray this prayer at least once every day. It is simple, yet, so profound. What insights, what aha moments, have you experienced as you have prayed? Has it been an easy prayer to pray? Has it gotten easier or more difficult to pray with the passing of days?  Are there parts of you that love praying this prayer and parts that want to run from it as fast as you can?

This prayer, I think, opens Jesus’ invitation for us to “pick up our cross and follow” and helps us to see this invitation from a variety of angles. Giving ourselves completely to God is a daily journey that requires courage and vigilance. Like Peter we can tune ourselves fully to God in one moment and completely stick our fingers in our ears in the next. In one moment we can rest fully leaning on God’s love and grace and in the next want to trust only in ourselves and the wisdom of the world.  In many ways, we are like Peter.

I invite you to pray this prayer several times today. Stop and reflect on each verse. Stop and prayerfully ask what God might want you to hear from each of these words as you move about today?

I give myself completely to you, God.
Assign me to my place in your creation.
Let me suffer for you.
Give me the work you would have me do.
Give me many tasks or have me step 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, you are mine and I am yours 
So be it.

May this covenant made on earth
continue for all eternity.
Amen.

 
~ Rich Greenway

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