A New Year’s Day Prayer

 

Another year has turned its page, O Lord.

We feel promises about to be fulfilled,
hopes that may be realized,
And sorrows unknown – that may become ours to bear.

All of this, we carry into a New Year.

We declare at the doorway into this year, that our trust is not
In any man or woman to fulfill us,

Nor is our trust in circumstance,
Or a belief that the days ahead will be easy.

We do not expect, in this New Year, for our every prayer
To be answered in a way we would like.
You are in control, and we release our lives to you.

We put our trust in this:
That You who have been with us through this past year,
Immanuel,
Will be with us in this New Year.

It is in You, Immanuel, we trust.
If you go ahead of us, we will go;
if you go behind us, we will go.

If you will lead us in a cloud by day,and if you will
Light the night and its shadows with Your fire,
we will faithfully follow.

This is our prayer: In all things that happen this year we ask
That we would be aware of Your presence, O Lord.

In this walk that will always be by faith and not by sight,
Let us perceive Your nearness.

We will stumble and fall,
and we will also succeed and triumph.
We will laugh, and we will also weep.

But in those moments in which we cannot sense You near,
Let us see with the eyes of faith
the marks of Your presence all around us,
Beneath us, carrying us boldly into Your future.

With You we walk, with confidence and trust,
into this New Year.

In Your Name we pray, living Lord Jesus,

 

Amen.

 

poem: ‘With You We Walk’ by Dan Wilt
photo: ‘Open Door’ from Pinterest.com