wannabepriest

ASBO Jesus in inimitable style gets to the root of the problem with New Year Resolutions!

As I make my resolutions this year (get a level of fitness back, start getting to bed at the time normal people go to bed, get those videos edited at last and finish off the kids’ birth books, finish my MA dissertation) that strangely bear a large amount of similarity with last year’s resolutions, I’m going to try and sort it out this year and get it right but I know I’m still a fallen human being who will get it wrong.

At this time of year, I really wish I was a Methodist. They have a great liturgy, a ‘Covenant service’ that they do at this time of year which is awesome liturgy at its powerful and most demanding best… two extracts below.

Minister:
Christ has many services to be done:
some are easy, others are difficult;
some bring honour, others bring reproach;
some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests,
others are contrary to both;
in some we may please Christ and please ourselves;
in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves.
Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ,
who strengthens us.

All:
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.
Amen.

If you can pray all that and mean it, well God bless you this year and be ready that He may take you at your word.