New Years Prayer

Prayer For the New Year


Dear Lord,
Happy New Year!
Only You can know the sorrows and celebrations of 2007 and I pray that for You this will be a happier year than the last.
The changing calendar reveals again the mystery that is time; a past that is beyond comprehension and a future that is beyond imagination.
History, pre-history, Big-Bang, “And God said….And God saw that it was good….”
The future; today, tomorrow, death, resurrection, the end of the world, Jesus….
It is entirely too big, too much, my soul can’t take it in.
We stand in awe – feeling so small.
Already we know a time and place, not too far away, that cannot be seen from this side of “The Great Divide.”
Mystery and Majesty and Miracle are words not big enough for time and eternity and The Maker thereof.

Standing in awe before You, I pray:
For an end to the war
For all who would do us harm
For the integrity of our own nation
For honesty and wisdom, for moral and ethical behavior
For liberty and justice for all

I pray:
For the ill and the dying
For the whole and the living
For the broken hearted and those in the ecstasy of love
For the relocated and the dislocated and for all who are experiencing dramatic and traumatic change
For those who marry and give birth and for the divorced and those who lose their children
And all whose relationships are stressed, distressed and broken and for all who enjoy happy friendships and loving families
For the working and the leisured
For the employed and unemployed and under-employed
For all who are beginning careers and those who are approaching retirement and all who must slug-it-out in daily labor

I pray for family, especially my own;
For my wife and daughters and sons
For my brother and sister, my nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles
I give thanks for Mom and Dad and grandparents and all who have nurtured my life
I am grateful for all, known and unknown, whose generosity made maturation and education possible.

I pray for our church;
For this remarkable community of faith – Thank You
For the resolve to do that which is right and good and faithful
That we might be faithful to the call given us in “The Great Commission” to make and teach disciples
That each person will live out his or her membership with integrity, faithful to the whole as “The Body of Christ” even as each pursues his or her personal spiritual journey
Accept my gratitude for this magnificent body of souls who are faithful and full of love and live with a spirit that is open to You and others
And I pray that you will heal us in the broken places.

I give myself to you in prayer:
Asking that you will lead me to be faithful steward of the blessings that You have entrusted into my care.
Make me attentive to the health of my body
Attentive to the relationships through which I am so fully blessed
Attentive to the life of the mind and the power of thoughtful ideas
Mostly, attentive to You and Your Christ and the presence of Your Spirit.
Give me wisdom for faithful ministry
And I ask that you will grant a generous portion of joy and love, hope and peace in the days to come and a firm confidence in the life that is yet to come


For the ineffable experience of life and the wonder of love and the joy of beautiful things accept my gratitude
In the name of Christ

Amen