The prayer I want to put before you today is not as traditional as some we have looked at over the past few weeks but it is one many of us have prayed. It is taken out of our CH commissioning service. For those of you who have never taken part in one, our commissioning services are a time when we publicly declare what I hope we all already believe: that we are workers in God’s Kingdom and that he has called us into his service. I love officiating or attending Commissioning services. They always make me refocus on why we do the work we do.
For those of you who have attended a commissioning service, you will know that those being commissioned stand together and answer a series of questions. (Do you affirm the statement of faith?, Will you attempt to be unified?, etc.). One of the last things in the service is that everyone prays the prayer below together. (If you are new to pre written prayers I suggest you read this blog first: http://chdevotions.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-of-perhaps-not-so-common-prayer.html ).
As usual I suggest you pray through it and reflect on your own thoughts. My thoughts follow the prayer.
The Commissioning Prayer
God of Grace, you call us to a common ministry as ambassadors of Christ, to honour you and value people in all we do and with all our resources. Give us courage and discipline to follow where your servants rightly lead us, that we may declare your wonderful deeds. By your Holy Spirit empower us in our life together to model to a watching world just what it means to be servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Christ Jesus the Lord of all. Amen.
Two things stuck out to me as I prayed through the commissioning prayer today. The first is something that we have been talking about a lot over the last while. The “they shall know we are Christians by our love” aspect. The prayer states that we should be models to a “watching world”. I pray that we are good examples in the community. The fact that we have “Christian” in our organization’s name means we are ambassadors for Christ whether we want to be or not. I hope that the way we serve the individuals in our care and the way we treat each other and the community shows God’s love. I hope we are good representatives.
The second thing that struck me was the “courage and discipline” to follow part. I don’t often think about courage. I would chalk most of my personal failures up to lack of discipline not courage. This prayer made me examine what I might be afraid of. Many of the items in the “Private Litany of Humility” from a few blogs ago came to mind. Many people state fear as a big barrier holding them back from serving people with exceptional needs. We who work in the field have obviously overcome that to the most part. Are there still fears though that are holding us back? If so, ask God to show them to you and show that He and his pure love can cast out all fear (1 John 4:18) and give us courage to follow.
Mark Wallace
For those of you who have attended a commissioning service, you will know that those being commissioned stand together and answer a series of questions. (Do you affirm the statement of faith?, Will you attempt to be unified?, etc.). One of the last things in the service is that everyone prays the prayer below together. (If you are new to pre written prayers I suggest you read this blog first: http://chdevotions.blogspot.com/2008/06/book-of-perhaps-not-so-common-prayer.html ).
As usual I suggest you pray through it and reflect on your own thoughts. My thoughts follow the prayer.
The Commissioning Prayer
God of Grace, you call us to a common ministry as ambassadors of Christ, to honour you and value people in all we do and with all our resources. Give us courage and discipline to follow where your servants rightly lead us, that we may declare your wonderful deeds. By your Holy Spirit empower us in our life together to model to a watching world just what it means to be servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Christ Jesus the Lord of all. Amen.
Two things stuck out to me as I prayed through the commissioning prayer today. The first is something that we have been talking about a lot over the last while. The “they shall know we are Christians by our love” aspect. The prayer states that we should be models to a “watching world”. I pray that we are good examples in the community. The fact that we have “Christian” in our organization’s name means we are ambassadors for Christ whether we want to be or not. I hope that the way we serve the individuals in our care and the way we treat each other and the community shows God’s love. I hope we are good representatives.
The second thing that struck me was the “courage and discipline” to follow part. I don’t often think about courage. I would chalk most of my personal failures up to lack of discipline not courage. This prayer made me examine what I might be afraid of. Many of the items in the “Private Litany of Humility” from a few blogs ago came to mind. Many people state fear as a big barrier holding them back from serving people with exceptional needs. We who work in the field have obviously overcome that to the most part. Are there still fears though that are holding us back? If so, ask God to show them to you and show that He and his pure love can cast out all fear (1 John 4:18) and give us courage to follow.
Mark Wallace
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