This idea is also very Methodist. The official term Methodist theologians use is “prevenient grace,” but really all that prevenient grace means is that God always goes before us. We do not have to forge a way to God, or beat our way through some jungle, or accomplish some set of tasks before God will have a relationship with us—God is always already wanting to be with us, just as we are. God’s grace surrounds us in space, and it also goes before us in time. We do not have to achieve anything first.
So this week, as you go about your daily life, you can try two things.
1. Pause a moment. Close your eyes, or look at the wind in the trees, or simply sit quietly. In that moment, simply savor: God is with you. God surrounds you. God wants to be with you, to treasure you, just as you are—no accomplishment necessary.
2. Consider: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Look around you, in your day, at all of the things that happen without your will or your help. Leaves changing colors, squirrels chasing each other, water running down an incline. God manages all of that, an infinite variety of things, all without your help. That God also seeks you. Constantly. Lovingly. Attentively. The God who directs the expansion of the universe, and the rate of the growth and aging of stars, treasures each moment of your life—accompanies you every moment. Pause, and know that you are beloved.
All of this happens even before the transformation that we trust that God will work in our lives. Thanks be to God.
I’ll see you at the Harvest Dinner, and I’ll see you in church—
Becky
A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition
Gracious God, God of all creation,
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 by 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 heartily yield all things
to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
You are mine, and I am yours. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.