A New Year Prayer for January 2011

John Wesley, 1703-1791

During Epiphany we reflect on how God reveals his nature to us. A natural response is to pray that he may reveal himself to others in and through us. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who remained a priest in the Church of England all his life, encouraged his flock to make this covenant with God to be his in all things. Methodists still use it at Covenant Services, traditionally held at the start of the New Year.

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.
So be it.
And the covenant now made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

adapted from John Wesley's Covenant Prayer,
as used in the Methodist Covenant Service, 1974