new year's day 2019

Opening Prayer: Dear Lord, as I close the door on this old year, I ponder on the things I’ve done…on the things I’ve said and the joys I’ve had…then I wonder, have I lost or won?  I’ve thought of the new friends I have made, and of the old ones staunch and true…the path of the old year was made easier Lord, because I have walked it with You.

I think of all the many times, when my burdens were so heavy to bear, and how my faith slipped away from me…but somehow You were always standing there.  Now as I open the door to this New Year, and carefully peep inside, I wonder what it holds for me…but I’ll throw the door open wide.  And whatever it brings to me and mine, I’ll meet it with a heart so true…I know that, Lord whate’er it may be, You’ll be there to carry me through. ~Merrel Thompson

Scripture: Psalm 96:1-13

Journal: What new song will you sing to the Lord in the coming year?  What song is he singing in and through you?

Reflection:

I believe in all that has never been spoken.

I want to free what waits within me.

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear

without my contriving.

If it is arrogant, God, forgive me,

but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,

no forcing and no holding back,

the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,

these deepening tides moving out, returning,

I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through the widening channels

into the open sea.

(The Book of Hours, I 12, by Rainer Maria Rilke)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, in the year ahead: help me to live more like you lived, help me to care more like you cared, help me to serve more like you served, and help me to love more like you loved.  May I be more like you at the end of the year than I was at the beginning.  By your grace and power.  Amen.