Evening Prayer Friday, 8 January 2021

by Ian Trimnell · 8 January 2021

Happy New Year everyone!

What a strange New Year it is. We usually think of the New Year as giving us an opportunity to start afresh; to reflect on the way we would prefer to live our lives, on the things we would like to change, and some people choose to make New Year resolutions.

This New Year is rather different from most. However, the lockdown may have enabled some of us to reflect more deeply on those things which we see as most important in our lives. Some may already have made changes they find helpful and intend to continue. Others may be finding some enforced changes frustrating or a hindrance to living a full and satisfying life.

Within my tradition of the Methodist Church, the first service in the New Year was always a ‘Covenant Service’. Some years we have also incorporated this into our services at Cornerstone. This is a service which dates right back to the days of John Wesley. Members are invited to reconsider the commitment they have made and renew their Covenant with God. This can really be quite challenging when taken seriously, but I have also found that having a regular time when I am expected to think seriously about what this commitment means to me can help to keep my faith fresh and encourage me to face up to anything I may feel uncomfortable about or ashamed of.

These are the words of the Covenant Prayer, which is included in the service:

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.

Glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
you are mine and I am yours.
So be it.
And this covenant now made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

As you can see, it is not an easy prayer, and cannot be prayed lightly. However, I thought you might like to read it to yourself, think about what this would mean for you, and then, if it feels right to you to do so, pray the prayer for yourself.

Whatever you decide, I pray that you will have a fruitful year ahead, that I may meet up with you at some time during the year when we are able to be at church together again. In the meantime, through these daily prayers, may we travel together in faith and grow together in love.

To conclude our prayers, I have copied below a hymn written for the New Year in 2015 by a Methodist minister, Revd. Steve Clark. If you would like to try singing it, you will find that it can be sung to the same tune as ‘Brightest and Best of the sons of the morning.’

Lord God we stand at the start of a new year,
None of us know what the future will bring;
But we do know that you’ll always be with us,
So it’s with joy that your praises we sing.

Refrain

Father we worship you, bow to your majesty
Jesus we love you, our Saviour and friend;
Spirit we open our hearts to your presence,
Grace without measure and love without end.

Jesus you call us to follow and trust you,
Empty our lives of all selfish desire;
We give ourselves to bear fruit of the Kingdom,
Filled with your Spirit and hearts set on fire.

Refrain

So as we take the next steps on our journey,
Guard us from worry, from doubt and from fear;
Help us to trust you and fix our eyes on you,
Walk hand in hand with you through this new year.

Refrain

I wish you all a peaceful night and a very happy New Year.

Rosemary Kearsey