Prayer As We Enter An Uncertain New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Happy New Year!  There is a line in a Christian music song which says, God has "opened up my future, closed my past."  After the year we had in 2020 I think this New Year's Day is generating that desire within many of us – a longing for a new beginning. 

Well, as well as maybe getting vaccinated against covid-19, one of the ways people often seek to make the new year better than the old one, is to make New Year's resolutions – commitments to personal goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit.  The only problem with looking to self-determined New Year's resolutions is that statistics tell us that after 9 days there is a 75% failure rate in keeping the resolutions.

If we think that's bad news, what do we do with the statistic that tells us that 100% of people fail to live according to God's righteous laws?  The result of that failure isn't just a few more pounds in weight on our bodies or a little more debt – it means death and eternal separation from God.

It's no wonder we love to celebrate Christmas -- the birth of Jesus Christ.  It is such a wonderful event because the Bible tells us: But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law.  God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. Galatians 4:4-5

Before the beginning of time, God planned for each of us to live in a productive, loving, creative connectedness to Him.  He planned for us to have the opportunity to daily walk and talk with Him.  His desire was for us to know the peace and blessing that would flow from our relationship with Him. 

We can enter into this new year with joy and hope because it is God who says that when we invite Him into our lives, we become new.  The old goes and the new comes.  God does it.  Prior to God living in us we are dead people walking around not knowing how to do life. 

You have now become a new person and are always learning more about Christ. You are being made more like Christ. He is the One Who made you.   Colossians 3:10

When God makes us alive, He not only shows us how to live but gives us the desire and the power to do things His way. 

Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.  Philippians 2:12b-13

Heavenly Father, Thank You for a new day, a new year, a new beginning.  Thank You for giving Your beloved son Jesus to be a sacrifice for our sin. We choose to surrender our will and life into Your care and trust that as we faithfully follow You, Your plans for our future will open up and this will be our best year yet.

We do long for an end to this season of the pandemic with all it’s uncertainties and restrictions but we know that unless You are working in our lives to build Your character and Your ways in us, then this year will not be much of an improvement on the last.  So help us to surrender to You and let Your new life flow through us as these verses describe it for us:

God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So your new life should be like this: Show mercy to others. Be kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Don’t be angry with each other but forgive each other. If you feel someone has wronged you, forgive them. Forgive others because the Lord forgave you. Together with these things, the most important part of your new life is to love each other. Love is what holds everything together in perfect unity.  Colossians 3:12-14

You are the hope that lives inside us and the love that is always there to take us forward.  We pray that You will help us to live in this new year, one day at a time, as the person You created us to be.  Help us to become more like You in 2021.  Amen