A Prayer of Commitment and Hope for the New Year

God of love and mercy, we worship you, at the beginning of this new year, in humility and hope.

In response to your self-giving love, we commit ourselves to nurturing deeper intimacy with you, and we give ourselves fully and passionately to you now. Help us give ourselves without reserve, each day, because we are so inclined to lean away from you when life seems too difficult or too easy.

Deepen our hunger for the Living Word, Jesus Christ, and for the written word of scripture. Let scripture shape our thoughts, inform our motives, and motivate all of our action.

As we encounter your word, reveal our destructive habits, our blind spots and inconsistencies that weaken faith, and the secret sins that must be rooted from our lives as we allow you to transform us.

Hear our cries of repentance, forgive us, and lead us in paths of faithfulness. We are unworthy of your forgiveness and care, but without your mercy we have no chance for lives of deep meaning and true joy.

Draw us more deeply into the life of prayer. Give us the courage to speak and ask boldly, as friend with friend. And give us the courage and discipline to listen honestly and to act in obedience when you call us to change or act.

Break any hold that idolatrous greed may have upon our lives.

Open our hearts, our wallets and our purses for generosity. Enable us to give extravagantly as we trust you to meet every need. Let our efforts at generosity cause others to praise you for your faithfulness.

Soften our hearts toward any people whom we may perceive as outsiders. Enable us to offer joyful and compassionate welcome with an inclusiveness that reflects your own broad love.

Help us hone each other’s faith and prod each other to utilize all of our gifts and abilities to do the good for which you have created us.
Let the good news of your salvation pour readily from our lips, so that others are drawn toward intimacy with you and into faithfulness to your generous governance of all things.

God of healing, we pray that you will restore health to those who are sick, injured or diseased (prayer for specific persons may be voiced).

God of comfort, we pray that you will accompany those who grieve, that you will heal sadness and restore joy, that you will enable us to touch those who mourn with your tenderness (prayer for specific persons may be voiced).

God of justice, we pray that you will undermine every structure of oppression, that you will oversee equitable distribution of all the earth’s resources, and that you will make us agents of your just purposes.

God of peace, we pray that you will raise up peacemakers everywhere, including among us, and that you will bring an end to the acts of terrorism and terrible wars that heighten the fears and shatter the lives of so many people around the world.

We worship you, Living God, with joy.
We worship you, Loving God, with expectant hope.
We worship you, Saving God, with deep gratitude for Jesus – our Model of faithfulness, our Redeemer and Friend, who was obedient even to the point of death on a cross.
We worship you, Companion God, with continuing gratitude for the Holy Spirit who comforts, instructs and energizes us for faithfulness in every situation. Amen.


This prayer can be used at the beginning of the Church Year - the first Sunday of Advent - or at the beginning of the calendar year, which represents a significant time for new beginnings for many people. I wrote this prayer in December, 2005, for use at St. Nicolai UCC. We used it again on January 1, 2011.