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Dear Friends
Apparently, January 21st is officially the day that most people give up their New Year resolutions and go back to their old habits. This makes me feel a little sad. Are we really so predictable?
The very first service I ever conducted in a Methodist Church was in Anniesland in Glasgow and it was the annual Covenant Service. At that stage I had never encountered such a thing and I remember being very moved as I led that small congregation through the renewal promises of the Covenant they have made to God. I watched as many of the elderly members repeated the Covenant from memory, the words ingrained on their minds - this was a really powerful and blessed moment.
This year I have once again been conducting the Covenant Service in my churches, standing and renewing my Covenant, along with the good folks in each church. How wonderful it is to take time at the beginning of a new year to acknowledge and renew our commitment to God. Let me share with you the words of the Covenant prayer and I invite you, if you haven't already, to stop, find some quiet place, and make this prayer your own and renew your Covenant with him.
Therefore let us make this Covenant of God our own.
Let us give ourselves to him, trusting in His promises and relying on His grace.
I am no longer my own but yours.
Your will, not mine, be done in all things, wherever you may place me, in all that I do and in all that I may endure; when there is work for me and when there is none; when I am troubled and when I am at peace.
Your will be done when I am valued and when I am disregarded; when I find fulfilment and when it is lacking; when I have all things, and when I have nothing.
I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose.
Glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours.
May it be so forever.
Let this Covenant now made on earth be fulfilled in Heaven.
AMEN.
God bless you,
Crawford
Rev CJ Logan, Minister
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