A Prayer on December 31

Our great and Gracious God, as we come to the close of another year, we would indeed make it the prayer of our hearts that you would abide with us. We thank you that you have been with us through the days of this past year.

Perhaps many a day we have not felt you near,
Perhaps at times we have even felt that you have
forsaken us and forgotten us
but we thank you that it has never been so.
We thank you that you are constantly with your people,
and that you have enabled us to persevere in grace,

You have comforted our hearts,
You have heard our prayers,
You have come so often to our aid.
We pray that you will go with us into this new year.

There is none of us who knows what the new year will hold,
but we thank you that every moment of that year is in your hands,
and you will be with your people.
We thank you that with that promise girding us,
we can go forward with confidence and in your peace.
We pray that you will help us to walk with you in this new year better than we have ever done before.
Forgive us, Lord, for our sins and our backslidings of this past year.

Grant to us, as the days of the new year unfold, an ever closer walk with you.
Help us to put sin to death,
Help us gladly yield our lives unreservedly to Jesus Christ, our Savior, and God
that we may regard ourselves entirely at his disposal to be, to go, to do, as he would wish.
We pray that it may be our privilege to serve him,
to bring glory to him, to help others to know him better,
and to help some, indeed, to come to know him for the first time.
Have mercy, we pray, upon those connected with us who come to the end of this year
and their hearts are still closed against you, still hardening their hearts against you.

Spare them, O God, we pray; spare them!
Grant that this new year would mark the beginning of new life in Jesus Christ.
We are so thankful for the almighty Holy Sprit, for his limitless power
to bring conviction of sin,
to give new birth,
and to draw those who are away from you
to faith and to repentance.
We pray, Lord, that you would do that in the hearts and lives of all who are upon our hearts.
For Jesus’ sake,
Amen.

(From the book Heart Cries to Heaven, by David Campbell)