Friday February 7, 2025

On February 10, 2025 we are pausing our First 15 devotionals and encouraging everybody to download the Lectio 365 App to serve as our daily devotional time for the rest of 2025. We feel like this is the best way to fully embrace our year-long focus on prayer because of the unique format the Lectio 365 App provides. To download the app, simply search “Lectio 365” in your app store or scan the QR code below. You can also stop by our Connecting Point this weekend and a member of our staff can help download it to your device. If you are unable to use an app as a resource and would prefer to receive this devotional via email, send us an email here and we will connect with you.

Today is Friday, February 7, and this week we are praying through the words of The Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition.

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 blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine, and I am Yours. So be it. And the covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen. (The Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition)

Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked: Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, “In the Lord alone are deliverance and strength.” All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. Isaiah 45:22-24

Dear friends of The First 15, today is my final installment of The First 15 as our church pauses this devotional for a season and we explore an exciting new resource called Lectio365. I am so thankful for the opportunity God gave me to write this devotional for the past three and a half years. I am grateful God has used my meager wanderings as spiritual nourishment and inspiration for His people. Thank you for your faithful readership, encouragement and support along the way.

Today we conclude our reflection on John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer. I focus on the sentence in the prayer that reads, “I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.”

What does it mean to yield all things to God’s pleasure and disposal? What does it mean to yield? When I start a new venture, I begin, not by reaching for the stars, but by bowing down on my knees before the one true God and Lord of all. I seek His power and direction for my future. His alone.

Today’s scripture comes from the prophet Isaiah. In chapter forty-five, God’s plan extends beyond the return of His people from the Babylonian exile to their homeland in Jerusalem. God’s salvation will ultimately spread through His Son to all nations and redemption will extend to the ends of the earth. This is the good news of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Savior. God’s holy word will not be diminished, forgotten or revoked.

God is the one true God and there is no other. Before the Sovereign God every knee shall bow, including my knee. Before the Sovereign God every tongue will confess His Lordship, including my tongue. I proclaim alongside the ancient peoples that only in the Lord my God will there be salvation, deliverance and strength. Those ancient promises are realized in His Son Jesus the Messiah. I proclaim alongside the faithful people of God that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). He is the One to whom I turn and He is the One to whom I yield.

Ask: When I consider the current circumstances in my life, where do I turn for help and strength? Is my first inclination to turn to God or to someone or something else? When I consider the current circumstances in my life, have I yielded all things to Christ or have I held something back?

Pause and Pray

Holy Lord God, You are above all and through all and in all. In the early hours of the dawning day, I yield myself to You. In the poverty of my spirit, I turn to your mighty power and seek the salvation of my sorry soul. In you alone, Lord, there is deliverance and strength. In you alone, Lord, there is joy and peace. Come, Lord Jesus, you are Lord of my life. I yield myself completely to Your plans and purposes and endeavor to trust You with all things. Come and reveal the places in me that resist your leadership. I bow myself to Your Lordship, surrender myself to Your grace and seek to live a life of joyful obedience. Amen.

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