Clarion Call Lite Day 284
PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR 2021
(Prayed in Isla Parishes Church on Sunday 3rd January 2021)
Our loving Heavenly Father, the giver of every good and perfect gift, the giver and sustainer of life itself, we come and worship you this morning and thank you for all that you have done for us in the person of Jesus Christ - the babe we have been celebrating, who became a man, a sinless man, the only man who could save us from our sins and who gave His life that we might have eternal life. Thank you father, thank you Jesus.
As we remember the significance of the gifts that the magi laid before you in faith; the gold for the king of kings , the frankincense for our great high priest and the myrrh for our suffering saviour, we bow before you offering you the love and worship of our hearts.
And as the dawn breaks on a new year we want to thank you for your love and faithfulness to us in the year gone by, despite the difficulties that have dominated 2020, we acknowledge your goodness to us through it all.
We thank you for the beauty of where we live, for our homes and our friends and our families whom we hold dearer than ever now as we are reminded daily of the fragility of life. We thank you for sufficient food and medical care and for the way you have been with us through the hardships and heartbreaks of 2020, for your unfailing love and presence and comfort when we were at our lowest.
And as we stand on the threshold of this new year, many of us maybe anxious as to what it holds for us, some of us fearing loneliness because of the loss of a loved one in the past year, some of us with financial worries, health concerns for ourselves or loved ones, or employment uncertainties - we don’t know what the year holds Lord but we know the one who holds the year in His hand, who holds every day of our future in His hands and we thank you that you are our sovereign God. There is nothing that will take you by surprise Lord this year so give us the faith to put our hand in your hand, in the hand of the man who calmed the storm, trusting that whatever storm of life we may face this year, you will be there either to dispel it or to carry us safely through it according to your perfect will for us. So give us the faith to entrust this year to you so that whatever we face we face it in your strength and not in our own.
I pray that you would make us hungry for your word this year that we would want to study it as individuals and as groups of your people, that we would grow to love it more. That it would be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. That we would be faithful to it and that it would enrich our lives so that we would be filled with and overflowing with the power of your love, so that we can make a difference in this hurting world and bring honour to your name. Help us to love as you love. Fill us with your spirit that we can be channels of your peace and love to those we encounter each day.
Be glorified in our lives this year we pray as we entrust it to you.
And all this we ask in and through the precious name of Jesus our Saviour,
AMEN