A Prayer For The New Year
Discipline
May I be committed to letting go and letting God
45 minutes ago now we rang in the new year. The parents were both nearly asleep and Kady was downstairs, leaving just my youngest sister and I to crack open the Sparkling Cider and celebrate. We poured our glasses, and I sent out the customary text to some friends. After which I received a message from a young girl I met at camp this past summer. Next I FaceTimed with some friends from work as they celebrated. What I’m trying to say is that in the past 45 minutes, I have celebrated the start of 2025 with people from three different circles of life. People I have known for as long as the last 10 years, all the way down to the mere 3-hour shift we just had together last week. God is good.
I have struggled with finding steady community in 2024. Yet He is Faithful. He has shown me that He is all I need, even as I have rebelled and rejected Him. He brings me the people I need. He brings me everything I need.
And I sit here, amazed and marveling. How is it that this night last year I hadn’t even met or, furthermore, even considered meeting some of these girls that I now turn to implicitly? So much has changed since New Year’s Eve 2024, and I have no doubt much more will change by the time we ring in 2026. No part of this scares me, every bit of it thrills me. I cannot wait to see what the Lord does, how He moves. As I settle in to watch this next chapter in His good plan unfold I have just this prayer:
Lord Father God,
You do abundantly more than I could ever ask, think, or imagine. You tell me this in Scripture and I know it to be true. In this New Year of 2025 so much awaits. New people, new milestones, new experiences, new memories: new opportunities to share you with the world. However Lord, I cannot share you if I do not know you and lately I have been lacking when it comes to seeking you. I pray this laziness would cease.
Discipline me, Lord. I am clay in your artistic hands: mold me into the woman you have created me to be. Help me to seek you diligently. Help me to cast off the weight of the temptations of this world and run, full throttle, the race you have set before me. Give me wisdom Lord, to know the steps to take. Fill me with your love for others. Agape. May I love unconditionally, as you do. I am forgiven, so then, who am I to withhold forgiveness. But also, fill me with the enjoyment of the many good gifts you have lavished upon me. Let me not take them for granted.
I know I am about to enter an entirely new season as this school year comes to a close. Some of the friends you have blessed me with to have in my corner, every moment of every day, are about to go their separate ways in their next chapters. Lord, I pray for your sovereign, guiding, strong arm of protection to be around them. I love and cherish their friendship so dearly. Let us not drift apart, but come together to close the distance that will be put between us. And bring us all new people, the next circle of ‘every day’ friends for these new terrains.
Lord let me know where you need me. Where you call me. Make my ears deaf to all lies and doubts. Shout in my ear and whisper endlessly in my heart the promptings for where I am to go from here. Where do you intend for my feet to lead me, what work do you have for my hands, what sights for my eyes, what words shall I speak, and what words shall I hear? Let it all honor you. Let it all be True.
May I abhor the darkness and walk fully saturated in your Light.
May I be a prism reflecting the radiance of your glory.
May I be diligent and disciplined to press on in my Bible reading plan, we both know I have made many attempts in the past. Give me follow through this year. Let my yes be yes and my no be no: to You and to everyone else. Give me discipline. Teach me to let go of doing things in my own strength (which we both know is as weak as a feather against a rock) and let you take over.
Amen
Get me fired up for the new year…
Reading Plan:
The Bible Recap - Tara Leigh Cobble
Songs:
The Truth - Megan Wood
Let Go and Let God - Jack Cassidy
Reading:
Radiant - Priscilla Shirer
Discerning The Voice of God - Priscilla Shirer
Screwtape Letters - CS Lewis
Find Your People - Jennie Allen
Good Boundaries and Goodbyes - Lysa Terkeurst