I don't think it's a secret that the annual covenant service is one of my favourites in the calendar. Maybe it's because someone like me needs to keep revisiting the dedication, the promises I make as a Christian. I'm not sure why I like it so much but it is an amazing time of year.

We tend, as Christians to become stuck in a rut (sometimes), trying to get done all the things we are called to do, as well as all the things we think we are called by God to do. It can be hard work, and none stop. So it is important to take this time at the start of the Church year, to retreat, to step back, and think again about what we are here to do. 

The prayer we say, the commitment we make, makes it clear that it's OK sometimes to do nothing. "Let me be set aside for you". It can of course be very hard to bare these fallow times, times when we are unsure what God has called us to do. I can speak from personal experience that whilst these times are hard, they are ultimately very rewarding, as they leave space to hear God call us to something new.

I won't go through the whole prayer and covenant service here, even though I want too :-). If you have been in a house group with me I do tend to go on and on about it. If you want to discuss it, tap me on the shoulder and we can chat for days about it. 

The Church has a whole page on the Covenant service and roots web provide a nice little study you may like to take a look at, it's here ....

https://www.rootsontheweb.com/content/PDFs/346041/Methodist_Covenant_Prayer_study.pdf

From that article here is the prayer I refered to ....

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 blessèd God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
You can find another version of the prayer on page 288/289 of the Methodist Worship Book.
Methodist Worship Book, page 290. © 1999 Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.

Some of the words, commitments, are not easy to make and even harder to execute each day; however, I encourage you to read and ingest the awesomeness of this prayer. Enough said

In Love !

Jon

 

http://www.methodist.org.uk/who-we-are/what-is-distinctive-about-methodism/a-covenant-with-god/the-covenant-service