Prayer for the New Year

O Lord, Lord, merciful and long-suffering, and of great faithfulness, who art from eternity to eternity, and with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning! Behold, under Thy protection I have entered upon a new year. How excellent is Thy loving kindness, O God; therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house. The river of God is full of water.

All this, O God, I have abundantly experienced in the year that is past. And I therefore desire to begin the new year in Thy name, with prayer, sighing, and supplication. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning of this year, O Lord; in the morning, in its earliest hours, I will direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up. O Lord, I know not what may happen to me in this new year. The year is long, the days are many, human sorrows are manifold, and the accidents which may happen to men are innumerable. Therefore I come to Thee, O mighty and loving God, and at once commit myself to Thy gracious and faithful keeping. While all things become new, while the fields grow green with verdure, and the sun rises higher in the heavens, and all nature is filled with new vitality, let Thy goodness and mercy be new unto me also. I entrust my soul to Thy gracious Fatherly protection. Guard it against sin, that I may not deliberately and willfully defile it. Lord Jesus, sanctify and cleanse me with Thy precious blood. O God the Holy Ghost, dwell in me, and let me be Thy temple. What a blessed year this will be, if I remain in Thy grace, O heavenly Father, and live as Thy child! How blessed I shall be, if I continue in Thy fellowship, O Jesus! How my light will shine before men, if Thou, O Holy Spirit, dwellest and reignest in me! If I am adorned with beauty within, I shall be well-pleasing to Thee.

And as Thou hast hitherto blessed me with life and health, so do Thou also, if it be in accordance with Thy gracious will and be good for my soul, mercifully preserve me in health through the coming year, so that I may be all the better fitted for Thy service and the duties of my earthly calling. If, however, it should be Thy will to visit me with sickness or pain, do not forsake me, but soothe my pain and, in due time, remove my sufferings. Spread out Thy hand, O Lord God, over all my dear ones and over all that I possess. Be a wall of fire around me as around Elisha. Guard me round about like the house of Job.

Grant me the power of Thy Holy Spirit, that I may, during this year, grow in holiness, and become a true child of God, fervent in prayer, and diligent in hearing and doing Thy Word. Help me so to live in the new year, that it may be said of my soul, “Old things are passed away; all things are become new;” and that there may be found in me a new longing after Thee, a new love for my neighbor, and a new desire to be and remain united with Thee. O sanctify me wholly, that my spirit, soul, and body may be kept blameless unto the day of Jesus Christ. Give me a new religious zeal, and let me increase and grow in every good work. Bless my occupation and labor; bless my going out and my coming in; and grant me all that Thou seest I need. But let me also, at the beginning of this year, bear in mind that sometime the last year of my life will come; in order that, abiding in repentance and faith, and having my lamp trimmed and my loins girt, I may always be ready to receive Thee, my Bridegroom and gracious God, with joy, and inherit the kingdom prepared for me from the foundation of the world. Amen.