A Prayer for Targets within the New Yr - Your Day by day Prayer - January 1

A Prayer for Your Targets within the New Yr
By Molly Legislation

“Your eyes noticed my unformed physique; all the times ordained for me had been written in your e-book earlier than certainly one of them got here to be” – Psalm 139:16

The 12 months is over and carried out with, and the brand new 12 months, because it all the time does, has begun in earnest. Yearly, as New Yr’s Day attracts nearer, all of us wish to think about {that a} affluent and optimistic future awaits us. A lot in order that we alienate ourselves from all of the unhealthy that we skilled in the course of the previous 12 months and look ahead to a brand new starting.

However allow us to not overlook the great we additionally skilled prior to now 12 months and proceed to hunt the Lord’s guiding presence within the new 12 months. For we all know that God has been with us in 2022, simply as He has been from the start, and will probably be there till the tip. Immanuel, God with us, is a promise that endures.

After we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we acquired His fixed pleasure and hope in His enduring promise. We are able to really feel His presence by way of the gospel and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There are such a lot of on this world who will enter 2023 with out hope and with out peace that may solely come by way of Christ.

When that hope just isn’t present in Christ, folks search to discover a strategy to fill the void of their hearts with what they envision this new 12 months will do for them. The preferred New Yr’s Decision is to drop pounds.

Individuals inform themselves that in the event that they lose ‘x’ variety of kilos, then their lives will probably be higher: they may get that promotion, they may go on dates, and they’re going to turn out to be the individual they had been all the time meant to be.

This can be a lie from the world — from the enemy — however the reality the Lord needs us all to know is that you simply, proper now, are the individual that God created you to be. Simply as you might be: not 10 kilos smaller, not “more healthy,” not something that an influencer instructed you on Instagram.

Many weight-reduction plan books and influencers (some even Christian influencers) ship combined messages: “you’re lovely the way in which you might be proper now,” “wholesome is lovely,” “so do that and drop pounds” (subtext: “to alter who you might be regardless of what I initially mentioned”).

Please know that you’re lovely, splendidly made, and precisely who God created you to be. No additions, no caveats, and no subtexts to that message. Full cease. The New Yr is a passage of time that doesn’t have to suggest a radical change, and it’ll not fulfill the hope that many place in its inanimate fingers.

So, earlier than we give attention to our appearances, objectives, and imaginative and prescient boards for the New Yr, allow us to keep in mind our true calling to be fishers of males (Mark 1:17) and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19) by loving others as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:29).

Let’s Pray:

Pricey Lord,
I pray for everybody this New Yr. I pray that the hope for a greater future is not going to be positioned in an inanimate object that has no aware thought or look after those placing all their hope and religion into it. My God, I pray that they may discover you, to put their pleasure, concern, hope, and religion in you and in you alone. I pray for the misplaced, the damage, and the jaded. I pray for the ache and rejection that the world inflicted on them.

Lord, could we achieve compassion and understanding from you in order that we could shine your love and lightweight in a darkened world as we go away the previous behind and embrace the brand new with you, our Alpha and Omega, our Prince of Peace, Lord of lords, and King of kings. Assist us to not solely keep in mind the hardships of the previous 12 months, but in addition the great recollections. I pray that we not solely embrace the great within the New Yr however lean on you when exhausting instances finally come.

Thanks, Prince of Peace, for drawing near us along with your comforting presence, guiding us on this fallen and messy world. We love and belief you with all of our hearts, our Savior and King.
In Jesus’ title, Amen.

Molly Legislation is the Editor of C.com. She has a Grasp of Arts in Publishing Research from the College of Stirling, UK, the place she studied and lived for a 12 months in Scotland. She has a Bachelor of Arts in English Skilled Writing from Gardner-Webb College. Her editorial profession consists of Senior Editor of a bimonthly journal for the nonprofit ACA and Editorial Assistant at Luath Press in Edinburgh, UK. She enjoys studying 18^th-century British Literature, artistic writing, and touring.

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