The “Covenant
Prayer”1 is a powerful prayer of a Christian, who willingly and
unconditionally surrenders his/her life to God. But please do not pray this prayer
if you are uncertain of your dependency on God or if you are not sincere
in your relationship with God or if you have not thought through your
relationship with God.
The Covenant Prayer
This is the
contemporary version of the Wesleyan covenant prayer:2
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.
The Theology
This is the
theology that undergirds this prayer. Just as God’s love for us is
unconditional, our response to God should also be unconditional. This basic
tenet of committing or surrendering our lives to God, in an absolute sense,
governs our relationship with God. If we are not keen on totally and
unconditionally committing or surrendering our lives to God, then our
relationship with God cannot be on the right path.
The Lord
Jesus taught that in order to follow HIM, we are to deny ourselves of any
selfish, worldly or material pleasures, “Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross
and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever
loses their life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-25, NIV).
Moreover,
Christ taught that our love for God should be nothing less than absolute,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’" (Matthew 22: 36-37, NIV). Similarly, the Apostle Paul taught that we are
to be a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1; cf. Mark 10:28; 2 Corinthians
12:10; Galatians 2:20).
The Challenge
The
challenge inherent in committing ourselves to God totally or unconditionally is
our allegiance to selfish gains and worldly pleasures. It is very difficult for
a spiritually-young or spiritually-immature Christian to renounce his/her
selfish gains and worldly pleasures for the sake of God.
It is quite
easy to read about Paul delighting in his weaknesses, insults, persecutions and
difficulties, “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in
insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak,
then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10, NIV). But it is excruciatingly difficult
to live out a life that virtually delights in loss and weaknesses.
Our immediate
reaction when we are attacked by evil is to either ask God why HE delivered us
to evil or we plead with HIM to deliver us from evil. Sometimes we even reject
God (cf. Job 2:9b).
But how often do we thank and praise God
when evil plunders and renders us homeless, jobless, penniless or worthless
(cf. Psalm 34: 1; 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18)? This is the existential
challenge!
Then there
is the theological challenge.
A section
of Christendom believes in being the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:
13). This group of people (prosperity gospel or health & wealth gospel’s
proponents) is always in search of victory, “One of our church members saw his
sales performance hit rock bottom by the middle of the year. As a result, he
was ranked 320 out of the 420 financial advisers in his company. Devastated and
on the verge of giving up, he started listening to my messages and claiming
God’s promises such as “the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you
shall be above only, and not be beneath” and “many who are first will be last,
and the last first”. (Matthew 19:30) He committed everything to God because he
believed that only God could turn things around for him. And God did just that.”3
Those who
subscribe to prosperity gospel believe that “…believers have a right to the
blessings of health and wealth and that they can obtain these blessings through
positive confessions of faith and the "sowing of seeds" through the
faithful payments of tithes and offerings.”4
Significantly,
the proponents of prosperity gospel would theologically negate the core tenet
of the covenant prayer, which is to surrender ourselves to God - lock, stock
and barrel. This is the theological challenge!
The Reason (To Pray
Or Not To)
You may not
belong to the prosperity gospel faction of Christianity. But you may believe
that it is God’s bounden responsibility to bless us and not deprive us. If you subscribe
to this thought process, then please do not pray this prayer thoughtlessly.
Take time
to study your Bible. Meditate upon God’s goodness and love. God, who is
absolutely good and loving, allowed Joseph to be sold to the Ishmaelites by his
own brothers (Genesis 37:12-36). God allowed Job to be tormented by the evil
one. The Bible is replete with such instances.
As much as
the Bible speaks about the faithful being blessed, it also speaks about the
faithful not being blessed in worldly terms, “There were others who were
tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better
resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by
the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted
and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and
mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received
what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that
only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11: 35b-40,
NIV, Emphasis Mine).
The Conclusion
The
covenant prayer is a powerful prayer, designed to bring us closer to God. We
cannot be close to God if we equate God with our selfish gains and material
blessings. So pray this prayer, if you sincerely desire to grow in your love for
God, by laying aside your desire for selfish gains and material blessings.
Our joy is to be found in Christ alone
(Colossians 1: 27), not anything else, certainly not the material blessings, “a
fixation on material prosperity as the measure of their faith makes Christians
weak when hardship strikes because their unrealistic, unbiblical expectations
are not met and they feel let down. Worse still, their appreciation of the core
blessings of Christianity (eternity in the presence of God, salvation from sin
and judgment, complete renewal, etc.) is dulled by finding their primary joy in
peripheral blessing. Most seriously, the teaching of blessing in exchange for
sowing a “seed” or some other work undermines the fundamental teaching of
grace: the unmerited favour of God towards sinful man. The supreme irony about
this thing called the prosperity gospel is that it actually leads to spiritual
poverty in the life of a Christian. We need to stamp it out to restore the joy
of the Christian’s salvation, so that in all circumstances of life they can
find their meaning, their purpose, and their joy in Christ alone.”5
Endnotes:
1This prayer was written by John Wesley. Covenant
is an agreement between two entities. In our context, the covenant prayer is an
agreement between man and God.
Covenant Prayer (Traditional Version)
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 by 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 which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
2https://thewell.cor.org/wesley-covenant-prayer-card-traditionalcontemporary-package-25
3https://www.josephprince.org/blog/daily-grace-inspirations/the-head-and-not-the-tail
4http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/decemberweb-only/gc-prosperitystatement.html
5http://far-above-rubies-and-pearls.blogspot.in/2010/08/be-my-guest-poverty-of-prosperity.html
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