Heavenly father, together we start a new year, full of unwritten stories and new opportunities.   

Together we pray that we can embrace all that the next twelve months have to offer us.    We ask that you continue to be with us, and that your presence be felt in all things.   We ask that you extend onto each of us the wisdom, the strength, and the courage to meet each new day and each new challenge head on and full of eagerness.  Give us the courage to accept the clean slate you offer.

Let this year be filled with things that are truly good.   Let us look beyond the mundane or the struggles and see the blessings that wait for us at each corner.   Bless us with the warmth of strong relationships, the strength to help those in our community that need help, and the courage and humility to accept it ourselves, in the moments when we need it too.

As we consider those around us who begin this year fighting sickness, disease, or battles beyond compare, help us to meet them with hearts full of compassion.   Let us find the way to reach out to them, so that in each of us they find a strength that eases their pain, and reminds them that there are people who care, and will fight right alongside them.

Let all things be new this year.   Remind us that you are a God of fresh starts.   Let us become new creatures again, beginning today in this moment.   Let the ministry of all of your children, and of your church be not confined within these walls or the small circles of our lives, but rather be directed throughout our community and our world.

Remind us that it takes only one person,…one person willing to step out, speak up, and take a risk…  Remind us it takes only one person to change the world.   Help us to be the people who choose to do just that.   Help us to be the people who are willing to let our light shine, no matter the cost.

Together, we celebrate you in praise and prayer, and we do so as one voice, one people, and one church.   Amen.

(The Pic above is from the Courtney Collection, 2009 ccl.   I couldnt help but see Reggie in it, and had to use it.  🙂