DEVOTIONAL FROM PASTOR DAVE JANUARY 4, 2023

New Year’s Devotion

Happy new year! I pray 2023 is off to a healthy and hope-filled start for you!

Many of you may have made resolutions or set goals for yourself for this new year. One of my resolutions is inspired by a suggestion some of you made in our neighborhood gatherings a few months ago, which is to share a weekly devotional with you. So, every Wednesday, starting this week, I’ll send to your email and post on our social media a midweek meditation that I hope will be a blessing to you. I hope you’ll consider sharing this with someone else as well!

One of the traditions that John Wesley, the leader of the Methodist movement in 18 th century England, started was to lead his congregations in a covenant renewal service. He would do this throughout the year, but he found it especially appropriate on or around the new year. The heart of this service is the Covenant Prayer, which invites worshipers to commit, or to recommit, ourselves ever more fully to God. I want to share this prayer with you this week and to invite you to ponder it and to consider making it your own prayer for yourself as we enter this new year.

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 I have made on earth,

Let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

(A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition, United Methodist Hymnal, 607).