I had not heard of the Covenant Prayer or 17th century Puritan minister Richard Alleine before I picked up this book. It’s a slim volume, not even 150 pages. I’m just about to begin the conclusion, and highly recommend the book and the prayer.
The prayer begins: “I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt….” (You can read it all at a number of places, including the United Methodist Discipleship Ministries site.)
Lots of great wisdom on abandonment of our will to the Lord’s and examples from the author’s life. He’s also got a humorous yet pithy tone I really like. Here’s an example from the Acceptance chapter, in which it’s explained “suffering” in the prayer means being-done-to, allowing things to happen, not being-in-pain. The Keith Beasley-Topliffe translation of Matthew 3:15 (Jesus’s response to John the Baptist’s protest over baptizing Jesus): “And Jesus answered, ‘That’s the way it’s got to be. Deal with it.’ And John caved.” And friends, who among us doesn’t need to be better at caving to Jesus?
What’s on your nightstand?
