A Prayer for the New Year

Father, a new year is opening in front of us, and we do not know what it holds. But we know who holds it — and that is enough to begin.

Thank You for the year now behind us. Thank You for what it gave and what it taught, for the prayers You answered and the ones You answered differently than we asked. You were faithful in all of it, and we believe You will be faithful still.

So we bring You these twelve unopened months, and we place them in Your hands.

Give us wisdom for the decisions we cannot yet see. Give us courage for the ones we already can. When the year brings joy, keep us humble and grateful. When it brings trouble — and some year always does — keep us steady, and keep us close to You.

Guard the people we love. Watch over our homes, our health, our work, our comings and our goings. Where there are broken things we carry into this year — strained friendships, old wounds, tired hope — begin Your quiet mending.

Make us better this year, Lord. Quicker to forgive, slower to worry, braver in love, more honest in prayer. Not perfect — just closer to You in December than we are tonight.

You have said, "Behold, I will do a new thing." Do it in us, Father. Make a way where we see wilderness, and rivers where we see only desert.

This year is Yours. So are we.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

When to Pray This

Pray this on New Year's Eve as the clock nears midnight, or on the first morning of January before the year gets loud. It also makes a meaningful reading at a family gathering or watch night service.

A Verse to Hold On To

"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert." — Isaiah 43:19 (KJV)