New Year's Prayers Are Better

Bekah (11) told us yesterday that she had never watched the ball drop.  She had seen the New Year in a few times, but we don't usually have the television on.  Watching great masses of people having a wild party, the giddy celebration of a new year with no thought for eternity, is something akin to fingernails on a chalkboard to me.  But last night, we turned on the TV just a few minutes before midnight to satisfy Bekah's curiosity about the ball and what it looks like.  

Far better than the revelry associated with New Year's, is time taken for reflection and for quiet contemplation about how we are to walk in the new year, how we are going to redeem the time we are given.  

"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

Ephesians 5:15, 16

And for me, far better than New Year's resolutions which I am likely to break, are prayers to a Father who knows me best.  I read this prayer many years ago, and I like to revisit it at the advent of each year, and make it my own.  

From William MacDonald's devotional book One Day at a Time:

New Year's resolutions are good but fragile, that is, easily broken. New Year's prayers are better; they ascend to the throne of God and set answering wheels in motion. As we come to the beginning of another year, we would do well to make the following prayer requests our own:

Lord Jesus, I rededicate myself afresh to You today. I want You to take my life this coming year and use it for Your glory.

I pray that You will keep me from sin, from anything that will bring dishonor to Your Name.

Keep me teachable by the Holy Spirit. I want to move forward for You. Don't let me settle in a rut.

May my motto this year be, "He must increase; I must decrease." The glory must all be Yours. Help me not to touch it.

Teach me to make every decision a matter of prayer. I dread the thought of leaning on my own understanding. "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).

May I die to the world and even to the approval or blame of loved ones or friends. Give me a single, pure desire to do the things that please Your heart.

Keep me from gossip and criticism of others. Rather, help me to speak what is edifying and profitable.

Lead me to needy souls. May I become a friend of sinners, as You are. Give me tears of compassion for the perishing.

Lord Jesus, keep me from becoming cold, bitter, or cynical in spite of anything that may happen to me in the Christian life.

Guide me in my stewardship of money. Help me to be a good steward of everything You have entrusted to me.

Help me to remember moment by moment that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. May this tremendous truth influence all my behavior.

And, Lord Jesus, I pray that this may be the year of Your return. I long to see Your face and to fall at Your feet in worship. During the coming year, may the blessed hope stay fresh in my heart, disengaging me from anything that would hold me here and keeping me on the tiptoes of expectancy. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"

***

For this is our God for ever and ever:

he will be our guide even unto death.

Psalm 48:14