Pause for Prayer: SATURDAY 12/31

 

New Year's eve is tonight, Lord,

    the clock is running down on 2022.

I'm not sure I handled all of last year

    as well as I might have 

(as a matter of fact, I'm sure I didn't)

 so I want to place the year ahead of me

    entirely in your hands...

 

I put my heart in your hands and I pray you'll 

    soften what's grown coarse,

    warm what's chilled and frostbit,

    smooth my roughened edges

    and mend my broken parts

        -and not so much for my sake, Lord,

    but more for those who count on me to be there 

        - with them, among them and for them…

 

In you hands, Lord,

    I place my mind, my thoughts and my will

and I pray you'll help me sort through

    my doubts and my questions,

    my fuzzy, lazy thinking,

    my confusion and my foolishness...

 

In the year ahead, Lord,

    give me the gift and strength of wisdom:

help me resolve each day 

    to seek and rely on your Spirit 

        for guidance and good counsel...

 

Sharpen my mind with your truth

    and expand my narrow thinking;

draw me to study what I need to learn

    and to understand what I need to know...

 

I place my imagination in your hands, Lord: 

    make my thoughts pure, my dreams sweet,

    my intentions just, my ideas honest, my plans firm,

    my goals true and my hopes ever faithful to your will …

 

And in the new year ahead, 

    I offer you my body, Lord:

help me respect and care for the human frame

    that gives my soul its presence, form and touch.

 

Get me out of bed and off the couch:

    move, shake and stretch me; 

walk with me and and strengthen me  

    for all the work that’s mine to do…

 

In the new year, Lord,

show me how to organize and use my time

and teach me not to waste this precious gift:

    fill my days with energy,

        with resolve to do your will;

    fill my nights with deep and restful sleep

        to strengthen me for how I hope I’ll spend

            the next 12 months with you...

 

In 2023, Lord,

    give me the gift of a generous spirit

and help me resolve to do for others

    as I'd have them do for me...

 

I entrust to your gentle care, Lord,

    whatever burdens and sorrows next year will surely bring

and I look forward to the joys of the year ahead,

    let me not miss a single one but rather, delight in each

        - and share them with my neighbors...

 

Into your hands, Lord, 

    I entrust the whole of 2023

and I pray I'll come to its end 

    at peace with you, held fast and close 

        in your everlasting arms…

Amen.

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