PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Luke 1:34–38 ESV
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
CONSIDER THIS
Let’s begin today with our working definition of prayer.
Prayer is the life-long process of becoming a peculiar kind of person who learns to exercise a particular kind of power for the good of the world and the glory of God.
About this word, peculiar. When we hear the word we associate it with synonyms like different or odd or strange. That is the more modern meaning of the word peculiar. We are interested in the older meaning. It comes from the Latin word, peculiaris, which means private property and more specifically the ownership or possession of private property. And you see where this is headed. Prayer is the lifelong process of becoming a peculiar kind of person—which is to say the private, personal, and exclusively possessed property of almighty God.
Years ago there was a movie I never saw but I never forgot the title: There’s Something About Mary. I don’t imagine it had anything to do with the Mary of our text today but that title immediately drew my attention to her. Did you catch how Mary responded to the angel’s announcement she would give birth to the Messiah?
Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.
Indeed, there’s something about Mary. That prayer reveals the “something.” Her response reveals her peculiarity. She belongs to God. She welcomes the Son of God into the depths of her being—into her very womb. Mary’s response reveals her righteousness. It is not a righteousness that comes from her behavior but from her believing. Mary believed God. Remember this clarion word from our season back in Romans?
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. (see Romans 4:3)
There is a difference between believing in God and believing God. Believing in God, well . . . is belief. Believing God is faith. Now recall the other clarion word from Romans:
For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Rom. 1:17)
This is the “something” about Mary we need to grasp. Righteousness is the gift of God to all who will believe God. It shows up in the prayer of faith. Prayer is not the path to righteousness but rather the power of it because prayer is the native language of faith. This is why “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
Now if it is true, that “the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective,” our chief question is not how do my prayers become powerful and effective? Our chief question must be: How do I become a righteous person? We will turn there tomorrow. Here’s the short answer:
Belong to Jesus—personally, exclusively, wholeheartedly.
Mary had become a peculiar kind of person—a righteous person—which is another way of saying a consecrated person. Mary said it this way:
Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.
It’s why we begin every day on the Wake-Up Call with the prayer of consecration. Let’s pray it again now.
THE PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
THE QUESTION
Are you coming to a deeper and richer understanding of the interconnectivity between righteousness, prayer, faith, and personhood? How do you articulate this? Any epiphanies to share?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing the hymn, “Take My Life and Let it Be Consecrated.” It is hymn 586 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com
P. S. I’m Praying About Teaching a Short Course on Prayer. Need your input.
I am pondering and praying about teaching a 3-session course on prayer. I’m thinking of calling it, “How to Pray Like Jesus.” Of course, he would have to teach us this, and I suspect he would if we asked together. Anyhow, I don’t want to do it unless there is sufficient interest and this is a way of testing my discernment. Would you take two minutes and respond to this two-question survey here?
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3 Responses
Consecration
Jesus calls people into Spirit-led action which transforms them from being mere hearers of God’s word into doers of the word and demonstrators of His righteousness, His presence, and His love.
If “peculiar “ actually means, private, personal, and exclusively possessed property of almighty God; isn’t that just another way of stating that we are holy?As Simon Peter once wrote: “Be holy because I am holy”, quoting Leviticus 19:1. Amen, then we should be a peculiar people, make it so.
Though it’s been the way since the Fall, it appears that Satan’s grip on the world is tightening because the masses see Jesus’ followers as particularly odd, strange, wrong, and threatening.
Different threatens.
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Being a follower of Jesus is secularly abnormal, and that’s perfect. It sets Jesus and us apart.
A saying goes, “What the current generation allows, the next generation accepts.”
And there are many new secular norms, especially the rise of sexual confusion.
Prayerfully, after other attempts fail at true love, worth, and peace, the confused are drawn toward Jesus because they see what they’ve been searching for in us.
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Staying 💪’ Christ
Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.