God, Our Creator and Sustainer,
It is a gift to be able to even pray to you today. We thank you that we woke up this morning. We thank you for your mercy and grace which is new in this moment. We thank you for your faithfulness to us. We praise you for your love that sustains our very being.
As another year comes to a close we end this year and prepare for the next in prayer. Some of us are ending this year with despair. We are exhausted from a contentious election. We are leery of government integrity. We have had personal challenges that have made us tired. Some of us have had new life and new love and we end this year with joy in our hearts. Take what has happened this year, the good and the difficult, and make us new. Root us deeper in our faith. Transform our love so that we may be more compassionate and loving people in 2017.
Where there is heartache and pain, relieve it with the joy of your presence. Where there is worry and doubt, grant us the peace to walk by faith. Help us to dream visions that your Holy Spirit has placed on our heart. Help us to dream even bigger than we could have managed on our own. You have begun a good thing in us and you will continue to guide us in 2017.
May joy be our anthem. May hope wake us up in the morning. May the visions of mercy and justice be our song we sing throughout the day. May we be quick to forgive and may we walk in the unity of Christian love.
We place our hopes, our dreams, our longings in your care. We trust that the things we long for you will not forget. Desires have been placed in our heart by you. Make them grow in new life.
May the church be a place of hope, expansive and generous love, and courageous people called to be the lovers of the world. May our witness point people to you, the lover of the cosmos. All the cosmos.
By faith, we walk into 2017. By faith, we leave behind in 2016 what no longer serves us. By faith, we proclaim goodness and joy in our life and the lives of our neighbors.
We have come this far by faith and we will keep walking by faith in 2017.
To God be the glory in our lives forever and ever, Amen.
