Wesley’s Covenant Prayer
OPENING PRAYER:
As I enter prayer now, I choose to be still and remember that you are God. Lord, I slow down and return all my attention to you. Holy Spirit enlighten the eyes of my heart and illuminate my mind with understanding as I pray today. I pray this for all those who join me in prayer and fasting in the KC Underground family.
CONSIDER:
For the past 242 years, many faith traditions that have followed the work of John Wesley have started each new year with a Covenant Renewal Service. The purpose of this gathering is to call believers to faithfully recommit themselves in service to Jesus. Each gathering has often included the following words before the prayer:
Christ has many services to be done. Some are easy, others are difficult. Some bring honour, others bring reproach. Some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both...Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.
What does the Spirit impress on your heart as you read these words? Ask Him now to speak to the depths of your soul on where He may be asking you to join Him where He’s already at work where you live, work, learn or play. Journal what you hear below.
PRAY:
Each Covenant Renewal Service contained space for prayers of adoration, thanksgiving, and confession. Before you read through the covenant renewal prayer, take some time for each of these types of prayer. If you have a journal, make three entries. Or, use the space below to write one entry each.
Adoration: Celebrate the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Thanksgiving: Return thanks for the gifts in your life.
Confession: Where is He calling you to return to His will and His ways?
JOHN WESLEY’S COVENANT PRAYER
Take a few moments to recenter yourself before reading through the renewal prayer below. Read through it slowly, or even multiple times, as you allow these words to prepare you for joining Jesus this year.
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, Praised for you or criticized for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and fully surrender all things
to your glory and service.
And now, O wonderful and holy God,
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it also be made in heaven. Amen.