A Reflection on Chapter 7:

COVENANT PRAYER
Ryan Tristan O. Digan
October 10, 2018

I remember the song we usually sing in our church before about 10-15 years ago, the title

is the “Covenant Song.” The lyrics of the first stanza goes like this: “Let me walk with You as we

journey through this life, searching for its meaning as we walk life day by day…” This Covenant

Prayer is a personal decision that has to be made by us. “It guides us through the valley of sacred

commitment,” according to Richard Foster. This is the last part of the Moving Inward. After one

has gone through the introspection; the self-assessment with regards to his/her relationship with

God, and after one having been molded back to the image and likeness of God, a Covenant between

that person and God should be made as a guide so that a person will not regress to his old ways.

However, many people would fear covenant or in layman’s term commitment, because

they are afraid to handle responsibility and they don’t want to let go of their worldly joys and

pleasures. Hence, only a few are really serious in changing their lives to the better because as I

have said, they are still hooked in the worldly allurements. Some people also are fearful of this

Covenant Payer because of one simple thing, they are afraid that they might not be able fulfil their

promise. Nonetheless, Foster is reminding us that “even the great Apostle Peter made promises

that were too much for him.” And this Foster also reminded us that, God knows the intention of

our heart and He knows our weaknesses and our frailties. Furthermore, he said that there are so

many times that our heart condemns us for the things for which God does not condemn us. God,

according to Foster is working at the desire level of our formation. So it doesn’t not matter how

many times we fall because of our frailties, but what matters most to God is the genuine desire in

us to change ourselves and to follow His will in all our ways.

 According to Foster, we cannot fulfil this promise. “The matter of obedience is God’s

business and not ours. We cannot do a single good act except God first gives us the desire for it

and then empowers us to do it.” God gives us the power to obey, and if we fall down, we get up

and seek to obey again. Foster mentioned the “Covenant of Time and Place” as means to practice

obedience to our covenant with God. It is a commitment to a regular experience of prayer – the

constancy of our prayer, that we need to do it according to our agreed time to do it with God. Then

he also made mention about the “Covenant of Place” or in other words, our own “holy ground” or

“sacred space” or the “war room.”

Before entering the seminary, I thought that I would be having more time to reflect and to

pray with God. However, I realized when I was already here that it is not that easy and that it is a

struggle for a seminarian to really find time and space to talk to God for constant assessment of

self. With the structured activities inside the seminary, it is a struggle for seminarian and I think,

that struggle also is part of the process to purify my intention and to see up to what extent I can

deal with these struggles. According to Foster, “Covenant Prayer is a profound interior heart call

to a God-intoxicated life. It leads us to the crossroad of personal decision. It guides us through the

valley of sacred commitment. It beckons us up the alpine pathway of holy obedience.” My coming

here in the seminary was a personal decision brought about by discernment and prayers, now that

I am already here, this chapter of the book of Richard Foster is just like an invitation for me to be

constant and be stable in my covenant with God, never mind how many times I falter, the only

thing that matters to God is my heart that says, “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed” (Ps.

57:7 of KJV).

The song that I chose for this chapter is “Panunumpa” and the lyrics goes like this:

“Ikaw lamang ang pangakong mahalin,

 Sa sumpang sa Iyo magpakailan paman.

Yakapin Mo’ng bawat sandal, ang buhay kong sumpang sa ‘Yo lamang alay,

At mapapawi ang takot sa ‘kin. Pangakong walang hanggan.

Ikaw lamang ang pangakong susundin.

Sa takbo sakdal, liwanagan ang daan.

Yakapin Mo’g bawat sandali, ‘Pagkat taglay lakas Mong angkin.”