COVENANT PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR
As we enter into 2024, it reminds me of an important prayer our church focused on during
the occasions of either New Year’s Eve or the first Sunday of the new year. I believe it is key to
us as laity on how we should focus our lives as we enter into a new phase. This prayer is
entitled, “A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition,” and is found as No. 607 in the United
Methodist Hymnal.
John Wesley first used this prayer as a part of his Covenant Renewal Service in 1755 using
words written earlier by Richard Alleine. Wesley believed that Methodists, and all Christians,
should reaffirm their covenant with God annually. The covenant service, often celebrated on
the first Sunday of the year, is at the heart of Methodists' devotion and discipleship, and their
dedication in working for social justice. The heart of the service, focused in the Covenant
Prayer, requires persons to commit themselves to God. This covenant is serious and assumes
adequate preparation for and continual response to the covenant.
The Covenant Prayer describes missional life devoted to following Jesus and serving as
Christ’s representative in the world he loves and is working to redeem. It tells us that being a
Christian is more a way of life than a system of beliefs. The Covenant Prayer describes the Jesus
way of self-giving and self-emptying love. It is a practical description of what Jesus was talking
about when he said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take
up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
The following is a modern version of the Covenant Prayer:
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.
As we enter a new year, a hymn that came to my mind is No. 393 – Spirit of the Living
God, a hymn that asks the Holy Spirit to fall afresh – to melt, mold, fill, and use. I challenge you
to quietly ponder this wonderful hymn with the words and music written by Daniel Iverson.
It is also my prayer is that you have a blessed new year filled with the grace of God, and
that you focus your life devoted to serving the Lord in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the
transformation of the world.
Denny Wissinger
Central Bay District
Co-Lay Leader