A Prayer for the New Year
2002

Week of Monday, January 28, 2002

Almighty God, I lift up my heart to you, my crooked little heart, and I dare to approach you as not only the Mighty God, high and lifted up, the transcendent One, the Wholly Other who dwells in unapproachable light, the One whom no one has seen or can see, but also as the loving Lord whom Jesus revealed to us is the tender, waiting Father, strong and gentle. You know my many sins and faults, far better than even I know (a disconcerting thought, Lord), but you still implore me to come to you, to cast my anxieties upon you, to present myself to you. How can that possibly be? I take heart in the words of Jesus that you will in no way cast off those who come to you (John 6:37), that you long to give rest to the sinful, the tired, the weak and the burdened (Matthew 11:28–30).

Lord, we have barely gotten used to writing the year 2002 on our checks, and yet already a month of the new year has past. Sometimes, Lord, I experience the passing of time as sad and even scary. Tempest fugit, like a runaway train, headed in a single direction, at high speed and with no brakes. With the Psalmist I realize that my life is short; the days “quickly pass, they fly away.” Increasingly, I experience my life as limited in more ways than I once could have even imagined, in time, energy, opportunities, friendships, finances, and on and on. So, Lord, I pray with the Psalmist at the beginning of this new year, please teach me to number my days that I might live before You with a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:10–12).

Father, I find it both discouraging but also liberating to confess my sins to you. I resonate with the words of the prayer book, “my fault, my own fault, my own most grievous fault.” It is discouraging to feel like I make so little progress in the journey with Jesus, but instead remain stuck in old patterns of thinking, feeling, speaking and acting. But it is equally liberating to remember the words of the Christmas text we read just a few weeks ago, that Jesus has come to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). He has come to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), to lift up the fallen, to bring close and embrace those who are far away from you, people just like me. He does so remembering that we are but dust and mindful of our weaknesses. Thank you, Lord, for the recurring rhythm of confession and forgiveness. By a miracle of your Holy Spirit who is the One called alongside to comfort me, grant me power to make a new start, to accept your grace, to extend it to myself as it were, and to offer it with joy and gladness to others who need it too.

Dear Lord, I pray for friends, family and loved ones. I remember many of these people with gratitude and fondness, and some of them with pain and frustration. I commend them to your mighty grace. May they discover your solace in a world of pain and strife, your hope in times of depair, physical and emotional strength for the tasks of everyday life, patience for the many infirmities that life brings, your presence in the midst of confusion, your wisdom and guidance for important choices, and the liberating joy of sins that have been forgiven. Most of all, Lord, may they experience your love for them and grow in their love for you.

Father, as I think about the new year now begun, my mind recalls the words of Isaiah the prophet who spoke to your Hebrew people living in oppression, humiliation and exile under the Assyrians: “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (43:18–19). Likewise, Lord, I resonate deeply with the words of the apostle Paul to “forget what is behind and strain toward what is ahead, to press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14). It excites me, Lord, to believe with Paul that you long to work in my life in ways exceedingly beyond all that I ask or can even imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

In all my yearnings, Lord, help me to live for today. Save me from missing the present moment at the expense of a merely imagined future. Father, work in me what is well pleasing in your sight (Hebrews 13:21), as I entrust myself to you, in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.

The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself Copyright ©2002 by Dan Clendenin. All Rights Reserved.