A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: FRIDAY 1/3

Lord, I wonder how my new year's resolutions
compare with your plans for me
in this new year...

I know you have plans for me
- I read that in the bible, in Jeremiah 29:

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you,
   plans for your welfare and not for woe,
      so as to give you a future of hope.
When you call me, and come and pray to me,
   I will listen to you.
When you look for me, you will find me.
Yes, when you seek me with all your heart,
   I will let you find me...

I'd love to know your plans for me for 2020!
Of course, I know that your plans for me
won't determine my new year:
your "plans" for me are more like the invitations,
the challenges you whisper in my soul,
prompting and nudging me
to speak, to move, to act...

And I know that among all your plans for me,
the greatest is your plan to draw me closer to you
and to your truth...

Your plan for 2020
is to invite me to respond more readily and fully
when your Spirit moves in the depths of my thoughts,
in my conscience and in my heart...

Your plan is to challenge me
in just those places in my life where I'm
most stubborn,
most afraid,
most anxious,
laziest - or least inclined
to respond to the opportunities
you set before me...

Your plan for the new year
is to provide me with new goals
(or remind me of some old ones I've not yet met)
and, once again, you'll call me
to accept and meet head on
the most challenging realities facing me...

And your new year's plan
is to console me and hold me,
forgive me and comfort me
in just those places in my life where I am most alone
and most in need of your mercy, your presence,
your peace and your Spirit...

You know well, Lord,
the plans you have in mind for me
and though I have some notion of what they might be,
I know I don't know them all:
nor do I know when and where and how
you'll let me in on your plans...

I do know that any plan of yours for me
is for my own good and in my own best interest
even when your plan takes me down roads
twisting and turning with troubles and trials...

And I know that in your plans for me
you've always got my back,
you'll always be there with me and for me,
right by my side...

I know you want me to seek you in the new year, Lord
and I know you want to be found...

Wherever your plans may lead,
   I know you want only the best for me;
wherever my prayer might take me
   you're my guide through my darkest hours;
and whenever I call upon on you,
   you'll hear me and understand me...

You know well the plans you have for me, Lord:
help me discern and know them near as well;
help me live in the hope and grace
your plans never fail to offer...

Help me resolve in 2020
to trust in the plans you have for me,
to live according to your word and your truth...

Hold me, Lord, in that sweet, deep peace
flowing only and always from your heart to mine:
hold me, Lord, for deep in my soul
I know that's the plan you have for me...

Amen.