Prayer for a New Year

 

Father, our slates for 2026 may not be as blank as this. Then again, they may. It's lovely to think of a whole new year with "no mistakes in it yet," to paraphrase LM Montgomery. Whatever our new year holds for us, whatever we think it holds, hope it holds, and have no idea it holds--we go into it with You, and for this reason, and this reason only, we meet it with confidence. 

We pray the jottings that fill our notebooks and calendars be from You, as much as fallible humans can make them. We pray to be about our Father's business in 2026, more than our own. We pray to record thoughts that have been taken captive to Christ. It's the mouth that, in its impulsiveness, speaks what the heart is full of, but surely the pen often writes it as well. Help our hearts and minds be full of what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy, and let this be what spills out of us, much more often than not. 

We pray every spiritual blessing in Christ upon our families. We pray for the families and loved ones of those who won't be going into the new year with us, those for whom 2025 closed their earthly book. We acknowledge with a tingle of hushed anticipation that we are all one year closer to eternity than we were one year ago.

Lord, no one can boast of tomorrow, so we make our plans and appointments lightly. We make them lightly, also, in order to open up swaths of unscheduled time with You. Without Jesus, nothing is important, and nothing ultimately worth it. Not one thing.

We pray to spend the year worshiping You, seeking Your face, doing Your work, and spreading Your fragrance. We pray to spend it loving. You and others. We pray that You become more, and we become less, and in the becoming less, become more. 

We walk into the future with the God who holds it, in the name of Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.