May God make me complete
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness. Scottish Psalter 1650
Read Hebrews 13:17—21
The blessing I read here, after the call to pray for the leaders who shepherd me, is often used when Christians part, say at the end of a service. So it’s almost like a ‘goodbye,’ and I can use it that way at the end of the day, to sign off and be ready for sleep. But it is also a preparation for the next burst of activity. It is a mission charge on waking, to prepare me for the working of God in my active life, for the day to be a day to seize God’s will as my very lifeblood, and to find it pleasing to me because it is pleasing to God. In embracing what God would have me do I will find something like a sealing, a sense of completion, an outworking in the very energy of my life, an outworking of the thing God has already done by renewing me. The blood of the eternal covenant is the price paid to renew me. Paid by Jesus. The day ahead will be the chance to embrace this renewal and to live in this renewal.
Prayer
Father, I thank you that I can finish this day under the protection of Jesus, the great shepherd, won for you, belonging to you completely. May I rise tomorrow, ready to live this new life with energy, ready to affirm everything good, happy to be yours and to show it.