Hope for a New Year

New Year’s Day has a way of reminding everyone that there are opportunities for a fresh start, a do-over, a clean slate. We set resolutions and try our hardest to make ourselves better human beings. The reality is that we can try and try and appear to make progress through growth, but we can never truly be good people in the eyes of the Lord on our own. It’s just not possible to live up to God’s standard of perfection. Lucky for us, He knows that, and cares enough about us to give us a chance for a clean slate in His eyes through Jesus. So for me, New Year’s Day is a reminder that God is reconciling us to Himself, giving us a fresh start, a do-over, through the sacrifice of His only son.

This year I chose to bring in 2011 with worship and prayer. Everyone in my house was asleep by 10pm, since my husband’s parents had to catch a very early flight home the next morning. I sat in the dark and watched fireworks going off for hours all around my house through my huge two story windows, by the glow of the Christmas tree. My church has a practice of asking its members to choose an hour to pray on either New Year’s Eve or Day, and though I had not signed up for this, I used their excellent prayer guide to commune with God for an hour as midnight approached. I listened to some worship music with my headphones on and just spoke to Him with adoration, confession, thanks and supplication (A.C.T.S.) casting all my anxieties of 2010 before Him and basking fully in the hope Jesus provides for the coming year.

I highly recommend this experience, and you can still take an hour to pray sometime today or tonight when your house is quiet. Even though the prayer guide is designed for our church, it contains tons of awesome scripture that can and should be prayed back to God. Try it, you’ll be amazed how you feel.