I have been praying this prayer for the last week – it’s taken from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. While I am not an Anglican, I often go back to the Book of Common Prayer for s structured readings and some beautifully crafted prayers. Not only does the Prayer Book offer rich structure to personal spiritual practices, it is also wonderful literature. You can read about the complex history of how the Book of Common Prayer developed here.

So: back to the prayer. The first part of the prayer asks that we be kept “from all things that may hurt us” – this is a welcome admission that, well, things can and do hurt us, and that we depend on the almighty and merciful God to protect us. The thing to notice is how purposeful this prayer is. It’s not so we can live happy and peaceful lives, or we’ll stay healthy, or that we’ll prosper. The focus of this prayer is that we are ready both in body and soul to

cheerfully accomplish those things
that thou wouldst have done

Think about that: we are praying to do the things he would do!

We are praying for radically changed behaviour. That my life would be a reflection of Jesus’ life. That my attitudes, my words, my actions will be like his. 46 words of total transformation! That is a revolutionary prayer!

Where will I start?

How I treat those close to me?

How money (how much I don’t have, how much I really want) dominates my life?

How I often ignore those in poverty?

What I say about others behind their back?

How the church seems more preoccupied with itself and enjoying its own light than shining that light into the darkness that surrounds it?

Wouldn’t my life look very different if I consciously sought cheerfully to do the things Jesus would do?

Wouldn’t it start to catalyse all sorts of growth in my faith and how my walk with Jesus comes to expression in my life?

Christians today often ask how the church can recover from the scandals of recent decades. True: the church collectively bears much institutional and communal guilt. Agreed: the idea of communal guilt is a little fraught, and there are differences of opinion as to whether, for example, ‘my church’ should freely guilty for something the leader of another church has done.

Be that as it may, there is little doubt ‘the church’ is suffering from a crisis of credibility, largely of its own making.

The simple point I want to make is this: if those who follow Jesus looked more like Jesus in their behaviour, if they resembled Jesus more in their compassion and pursuit of justice, if their public pronouncements more resembled the verbal messages Jesus gave in his ministry, we would probably see a rise in the church’s credibility. I say this because most of the disquiet people express against the church is because of what some church people have done, how they live and behave. Very few people actually struggle with Jesus himself.

If those who follow Jesus behaved more like Jesus the church and the world around it
would be a different place

Here’s my question: how does my life and behaviour need to change so I am cheerfully accomplishing what Jesus would have done?

Are you asking the same question?

Are we both prepared to act on it?