PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR

Holy Father and Lord:

For thy faithfulness through the year past we give thee thanks. Thou hast sustained us by the very Breath of thy being. Truly, "in thee we live and move and have our being." Thou hast kept us enclosed, surrounded and engulfed in thy holy presence. We are infused and enlivened by thy Holy Spirit. There was not one moment in this past year when we were not saved through your loving mercy and grace.

For the promise of the new year we give thee thanks. Thou wilt sustain us through all that might come our way. Thy loving presence will go before us. Wherever we might find ourselves we will never be apart from thee. We do not fear what lies before because "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." We are already "more than conquerors" and so shall we continue to be in the year before us.

For the coming of thy kingdom we give thee thanks. We know that through the resurrection of Christ thy coming kingdom has dawned and swept us up into its promise. Even now does thy kingdom grow towards the glorious emerging of the New Jerusalem. "He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love."

For the new year may we submit ourselves to the moving power and freedom of thy Holy Spirit that we might be the continual instruments of thy grace to all those to whom you might send us. May we as the people of God shine forth as the light of God that, unhindered, thou mayest complete the kingdom work for which thy Son did give his life.

Finally, "come quickly, Lord Jesus." May "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Fill us in the coming year with thy Spirit so that the heavenly vision will become our earthly vision and the earthly one our heavenly one, "until every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that thou art Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Amen.