Another year is fast disappearing, and a new year is fast approaching. Every year for everyone is a combination of joys and sorrows, progress and regression, good times and bad. Through it all, God goes with us, encouraging us, guiding us, chastening us, and testing us. Whatever happens, He never leaves us. He is the only one on whom we can always count ultimately. We gather in praise of Him for His boundless grace and his ceaseless love. Therefore let us with confidence worship God.
Pastoral Prayer
We praise and thank Thee for Thy care of us during this past year, and for all the ways in which we can observe Thy divine touch in our lives. Potential disasters were averted, we experienced far more blessings than hardships, our lives were always intertwined with the lives of loving relatives and friends, and we attribute all these benefits to Thee. Keep us from ever taking Thy goodness for granted, and enable us to live in it each day with the awareness that it is Thy goodness alone which ultimately sustains us.
We pray for people for whom Thy grace in the past year has seemed far less evident to them: those who are slipping deeper and deeper into illness or pain or mental despondency or financial despair; those who are stymied by life, and who cannot extricate themselves from situations over which they have no control; those who have experienced the death of someone who was central to their welfare and happiness, and they do not know how to find a new path to a new chapter in their lives; those whose faith has been shaken by circumstances which cast doubt on what heretofore they have always trusted. Lord God, Thy power is sufficient for all things. May people such as these feel that power in new ways in their lives, so that they are enabled to go forward with renewed confidence and trust.
We pray for people all over the world who have political power, and who inevitably will exercise that power in the coming year. Grant them wisdom in their authority, and teach them how better to use their powers fairly and with justice, and in cooperation with other politicians who have different views on what needs to be done. Show us who become so exasperated with politicians how hard their responsibilities are to carry out well, and also convince them how exasperated we are so that they may feel more impelled to use their powers well and wisely. Grant us unity, O God, in our communities, our regions, our nations, and throughout Thy world. We pray it all in the name of Jesus, the Christ. Now we pray as he taught his followers, saying, Our Father….