Covenant Weekly - Season 3 - Episode 8
To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.
Good Morning, Covenant Family. This week I would like to offer you some prayers written long ago, but prayers that I pray for you - for us. One is ascribed to a man named Paul, the other, to a man named Peter. Both were Apostles of Jesus and we have these prayers recorded in the Bible for us. I will read them for you and then share a song that was written based on these prayers. This is the Covenant Weekly for March 5, 2024. I pray this simple message and these prayers will encourage you.
The first prayer I’d like to read and pray for you - for us - today is found in Ephesians 3:16-21. There, Paul wrote this prayer that I pray today:
16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
The other prayer was written by Peter in 2 Peter 1 verse 2. After this prayer, he goes on to share some reminders and exhortations, but the heart of his longing for those he is writing to is this prayer that I also pray for us today.
2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.
These two prayers, the one from Peter and the one from Paul were put together in a song written more than three decades ago by a musician named Timothy James Meaney. I don’t remember where I came across it, likely on a cassette tape somewhere, but his song The Benediction is one of those songs that has just stuck in my head for decades. It is a simple melody. Maybe it will be a way for you to remember and pray these prayers for each other in the coming days.
Listen to The Benediction (Timothy James Meaney’s version from 1991) at
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFanoYT7zT4&si=MoRABxs4FRfjbWHm. (Or listen to Jon's version in the Covenant Weekly Podcast.)
May you enjoy the peace of Christ this week, Covenant Family.