I’m not good at setting New Year’s Resolutions, never have been. I’m not a goal-oriented person, and even when I try to be I end up in a pit of discouragement since I am rarely able to achieve the goals I set. Goals scare me, to be honest, because the achievement of such is entirely up to me! That’s just a recipe for failure, and I’m far too fallible to meet that call.
But I am good at prayer. Indeed, there are many moments when it is all I know to do. And it is in those moments of bowing down before the One who loves me most when I am able to face my fallible self and say, “Here I am, Lord: forgive me, heal me, help me, inspire me, use me.” And God bends down His ear to hear each word I utter, as well as those unspoken cries I cannot verbalize.
When I cry out my helplessness and my need for strength, His powerful and righteous right hand reaches down to grip me and pull me out of the muck and mire.
And so, instead of setting my New Year’s Resolution, I pray this prayer:
Lord of my life, thank you for this new year. Thank you for the opportunity to reflect and to plan and to think, and to move past the worry and regret into your mighty arms of love that will carry me to the place of hope where healing and wholeness can be known.
As this year begins, I ask for your grace; yes for each new day, because I know I will need it. I ask for your eyes to be upon me and to find me when I land in the depths of discouragement. I ask for the strength of your hand to latch onto mine and pull me out of the wallowing places. I ask for your persistent presence to walk next to me that I may move forward as I know I should, and that I might keep moving forward, only stopping to rest in your arms of love. I ask for your light of truth to shine forth and to make visible the path I should follow.
Remove the veil that clouds my vision and fills my thoughts with falsehoods which can only mislead. Let me see you, face to face, Lord. And then, dear Jesus, let me face the people of the world, unveiled face to veiled face, that they might also know the power of your peace which surpasses all human understanding.
Yes, Lord, bend down your ear and listen to my cries; reach down your hand to hold and strengthen me. And, by your grace, may I be a part of the revelation of Your love and truth for a despairing world.
In Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
