A New Year’s Eve Prayer

On New Year’s Eve we gather as a family to see in the New Year. Some years we actually stay awake until midnight, watching the ball drop in Times Square, banging on pots and pans, hugging and hollering, “Happy New Year!” At some point, I offer a prayer.

This year I have compiled a prayer for blessing as a way of saying goodbye to 2021 and greeting 2022. The prayer, in the form of a benediction, is a paraphrase that is based on Philippians 3:13, Hebrews 13:20-21, and Ephesians 3:16-21.

Prayer

We give thanks, Lord, for your grace and mercy in 2021. As the year ends, we ask to be able to mightily move forward in the spirit of the Apostle Paul, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead in Christ Jesus.

As we approach 2022, my you, the God of peace, equip us with everything good for doing your will and may you work in us that which is pleasing to you, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

And we pray that, out of your glorious riches, you will strengthen us with power through your Spirit in our inner beings, so that Christ may continue to dwell and grow in our hearts through faith.

We also pray that, being rooted and established in love, we may have power, together with all of your holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses our comprehension—that we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now, as we approach the new year, we do so while claiming the promise that you are able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within us. May you receive glory and praise in our lives and in our families and in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, not only in the coming year but for ever and ever! Amen.