A Covenant Prayer for the New Year.
The new year usually brings with it a sense of anticipation and hope. Even if 2024 ended with disappointment, unmet goals, a feeling of being lonely, inadequate or unworthy most of us have at least an ounce of anticipation that this next year can be different. For some the new year will begin with making resolutions with a ‘can do attitude’. Most resolutions are made around areas of life where we feel ‘less than’ to some degree. However, as I have grown older I have come to realize and take comfort in Proverbs 19:21; “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” Thus any resolution I make for the coming year and any human responsibility connected to the outcome is always subject to God’s absolute sovereignty.
So for me, the new year will begin with a longing to have a heart attitude best expressed in John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer.
“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.”
Whatever God’s purpose is for me for this year, I can rest assured it is good even though it may not line up with my plans. I pray you see God this way. If not, may I encourage you to first, realize we all have our own agendas and have turned away from the pursuit of God. Second, know that none of us naturally seek after him and we all fall short of living up to God’s standard (Romans 3:10-12, 23). So begin by reading the Gospel of John and then ask that you might see the truth of Ephesians 2:4-10.
May we all begin the year with a willingness to submit to the Sovereign.
John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer actually started with Richard Alleine, a Puritan who published it in 1663. John Wesley adapted it and first used it in 1755.