Jan 14: Have you ever read a more scary prayer than this?
Paul my vicar has been blogging again, this time about Renewing our Vow and Covenant, and he mentioned a prayer that I hadn't heard of, but it might just be the scariest, most challenging prayer I've ever heard. It's called the Methodist Covenant prayer. I got shivers when I read it.
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. Amen
There is no clever language here, nothing I can't understand, just the most pure expression of supplication, submission and admission to God that I've ever read. Even though the first line is simply a recognition that we didn't make ourselves and that God's creating Spirit is responsible for our existence, it puts it in a new light. It recognises that God is the God of the Old Testament as well as the new: isn't it tempting to think of God only as a benign, gentle, useful, protecting watcher when it is so much more than that. God is love, and love happens in pretty explosive, cruel-to-be-kind, hands-on, forthright way sometimes, and that's just with humans. Why don't we treat God as capable of that same kind of tough love?
Great stuff.
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. Amen
There is no clever language here, nothing I can't understand, just the most pure expression of supplication, submission and admission to God that I've ever read. Even though the first line is simply a recognition that we didn't make ourselves and that God's creating Spirit is responsible for our existence, it puts it in a new light. It recognises that God is the God of the Old Testament as well as the new: isn't it tempting to think of God only as a benign, gentle, useful, protecting watcher when it is so much more than that. God is love, and love happens in pretty explosive, cruel-to-be-kind, hands-on, forthright way sometimes, and that's just with humans. Why don't we treat God as capable of that same kind of tough love?
Great stuff.