I captured this photo of a rainbow following torrential rain

Dear Gracious and Promise-keeping God,

Thank You for the blessing of a New Year!  Thank You for a fresh start and a new beginning. Thank You for new mercies and Your great faithfulness! We thank You for being a Promise-keeper and a Burden-bearer. You have made a way out of no way. You have been good to us! We thank You for Your promises and that every promise in You is Yes and Amen. We thank You that You can be trusted in all things. There is none other like You in all the earth! Praise Your holy name! 

As we rise in a new year, we pray that we will also rise to the occasion of being Your disciples wherever we go. Help us to bear fruit and exemplify love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We bind up discord, wrath, envy, selfish ambitions, idolatry, hatred, quarreling, and dissensions–anything and everything that would hinder us from being Your witnesses.

We pray that we would be instruments of Your peace. Give us the discernment that we need to respond to every circumstance with wisdom and courage. Empower us with Your Spirit, O God. Help us to move and be present in the world in ways that glorify and honor You. Let us be the answer to someone else’s prayers.

In the year ahead we know that there are dangers both seen and unseen. There are snares and toils, trials and tribulations. We pray for our faith to be strengthened in every situation we face. We pray for our faith to be perfected because of what we will go through and in spite of what we go through. Fortify our souls, O God. Deepen our trust in You and help us to be forever mindful that You will never leave us nor forsake us, that You walk with us and carry us from grace to grace and from mercy to mercy.

We stand ready to respond to Your call to do justice, love mercy and to walk humbly with You. We pray for a more just world. Let us be a part of making it so. In the places and spaces where we are weak, help us to be strong; where we are lacking, fill in the gaps; where we are fearful, help us to be brave.

O God, when we see wrong or harm being done, especially to those who are the most vulnerable, help us to speak truth, to stand up and to fight for justice and righteousness in the world. We know that our weapons are not carnal but mighty in You for the pulling down of strongholds. Help us to fight with determination and confidence in You, tearing down walls of hatred and systems of oppression that keep Your people from being who You called us to be. Show us the way, O God. As iron sharpens iron, let us sharpen one another. Let us be doers of Your word and not hearers only, we do pray.

For those who do not know You, who haven’t experienced Your joy, Your love, Your peace, we pray that this year would be different. We ask that You would meet them where they are and lead them to where You would have them to be. And, in the case that we lose our way or our vision gets cloudy, thank You in advance for leading us back to You, for bringing us clarity, for guiding us and keeping us.

We ask these things in the precious Name of the One in whom the promise of eternal life rests, Jesus. Amen.