Learning Wholehearted Faith from a Celtic Prayer
I am giving you worship with all my life,
I am giving you obedience with all my power,
I am giving you praise with all my strength,
I am giving you honour with all my speech.
lam giving you love with all my heart,
I am giving you affection with all my sense,
I am giving you my being with all my mind,
I am giving you my soul,
O most high and holy God.
Praise to the Father,
Praise to the Son,
Praise to the Spirit,
The Three in One.
Among the most beautiful treasures of Christian spirituality are the ancient prayers gathered by Alexander Carmichael in his classic work Carmina Gadelica. These prayers, shaped by generations of ordinary believers in the Scottish Highlands, were not written in monasteries or universities. They were prayed in kitchens, fields, by hearth fires, and along lonely paths. Faith was not separated from life—it was woven into every breath.
One such prayer begins with a simple yet radical offering:
“I am giving you worship with all my life…”
This is not a request.
It is a surrender.
It is the prayer of someone who has decided that nothing in life belongs to themselves alone—not time, not strength, not words, not even their inner world.
In an age where faith is often confined to “religious moments,” this prayer calls us back to something deeper: a life entirely placed in God’s hands.
Worship as a Way of Living
I am giving you worship with all my life,…”
For the Celtic Christian, worship was never limited to Sunday services. Milking cows, baking bread, walking to work, caring for children—everything was done in God’s presence. Life itself became liturgy.
This challenges our modern tendency to divide life into “sacred” and “secular.” We may pray in the morning, attend church on Sunday, and then live the rest of the week as though God were distant. This prayer gently asks:
What if every moment were worship?
Paul echoes this vision when he writes:
“Whatever you do… do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
True worship is not something we fit into our schedule. It becomes the atmosphere in which we live.
Obedience Rooted in Love
I am giving you obedience with all my power
Obedience is often misunderstood as something heavy or restrictive. But in this prayer, obedience flows from devotion. It is not forced submission; it is willing alignment.
It is the prayer of someone who says:
“Lord, I want Your will to shape my choices, my habits, my priorities.”
This kind of obedience does not grow from fear, but from trust. Jesus said,
“If you love me, you will keep my commands” (John 14:15).
Love comes first. Obedience follows naturally.
The Celtic believers understood this. Their obedience was not about rule-keeping, but about staying close to God in every circumstance.
Words That Honor God
I am giving you praise with all my strength,
I am giving you honour with all my speech.
Here, the prayer turns to something we often overlook: our words.
Our speech reveals our hearts.
How we talk—to others and to ourselves—shapes our spiritual life.
Do our words carry gratitude or complaint?
Encouragement or criticism?
Hope or cynicism?
This prayer invites us to place our tongues on God’s altar. It reminds us that honoring God is not only about singing hymns, but about how we speak in daily life.
As James writes,
“The tongue… is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts” (James 3:5).
To give God our speech is to let grace shape our conversations.
Loving God with the Whole Self
lam giving you love with all my heart,
I am giving you affection with all my sense,
I am giving you my being with all my mind,
This section is deeply personal. It reflects Jesus’ command to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). But it goes further—it includes our senses, emotions, and inner experiences.
The prayer acknowledges that faith is not only intellectual. It involves:
- What we feel
- What we enjoy
- What we fear
- What we desire
- What we imagine
God is not interested only in our thoughts. He desires our whole selves.
Many of us try to present God with a “polished” version of ourselves—our good intentions and spiritual aspirations. But this prayer says:
“Here is all of me—my weakness, my longing, my confusion, my joy.”
That kind of honesty is the foundation of real intimacy with God.
Offering the Soul
I am giving you my soul,
O most high and holy God.
At the heart of the prayer is this final surrender.
The soul represents our deepest identity—who we are when no one is watching. To give our soul to God is to entrust our future, our wounds, our failures, and our hopes to Him.
It is a prayer of trust:
“Lord, I do not fully understand myself, but I place myself in Your care.”
This echoes David’s prayer:
“Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5).
And Jesus’ words on the cross:
“Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).
To give God our soul is to rest in His faithfulness.
Life Gathered into Praise
Praise to the Father,
Praise to the Son,
Praise to the Spirit,
The Three in One.
The prayer ends in worship of the Trinity. Everything that has been offered—life, strength, speech, heart, mind, soul—is gathered into praise.
Surrender does not lead to emptiness.
It leads to joy.
When we give ourselves to God, we do not lose ourselves. We find ourselves.
As Jesus said,
“Whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
What This Prayer Teaches Us Today
In a world shaped by hurry, distraction, and divided loyalties, this ancient prayer speaks with surprising relevance.
It invites us to ask:
- Have I given God only parts of my life?
- Do my daily habits reflect devotion?
- Are my words shaped by grace?
- Have I entrusted my inner life to Him?
It reminds us that Christianity is not mainly about adding religious activities to busy lives. It is about becoming living offerings.
Paul expresses this beautifully:
“Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice… this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1).
The Celtic Christians lived this truth quietly and faithfully. Their prayers still teach us how.
A Prayer for Today
Lord God,
Teach me to give You not only my prayers,
but my days.
Not only my songs,
but my speech.
Not only my thoughts,
but my desires.
Receive my work and my rest,
my strength and my weakness,
my confidence and my doubts.
Take my heart, my mind, and my soul.
Make my life a gentle hymn of gratitude.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Three in One,
Be glorified in me today.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment