Move over, Prayer of Jabez. United Methodist pastor Beasley-Topliffe has found a 1663 prayer that encourages Christians, when practiced as part of a daily spiritual practice, to abandon themselves to God and to trust God's will for their lives. He discovered the prayer (which begins "I am no longer my own, but thine") in seminary, and has used it for many years in his private devotions and public ministry. He observes that the prayer "always reminds me of my deepest desire: to give up clinging to the illusion that I am my own and become, by God's grace, fully God's." Breaking down the prayer's component parts, Beasley-Topliffe devotes chapters to themes such as surrender, acceptance, emptiness and yielding that arise from practicing the prayer. He offers illustrations of his own struggles to overcome obstacles such as pride and addictions to material goods and status. In his own efforts to surrender himself to God, Beasley-Topliffe continually prays the Covenant Prayer and also seeks out the models of prayer that the lives of Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux, Jean-Pierre de Caussade and John Woolman provide. He urges Christians to consider the Covenant Prayer as a starting point for forming a deeper relationship with God. With humor and honesty, Beasley-Topliffe shares his own struggles to find spiritual direction and to develop a richer spiritual life as a way of encouraging others to do the same. (Nov.)
