Father,
One day is just like
the next. And yet, not really. We can have one day labeled with one year and
the following day labeled with the next. And that’s going to happen again this
week. We’re going to start another year.
There were things
that happened this past year that we didn’t anticipate, things that we could
not have expected. Some of those things were really good. And some of those
things were really bad. And it’s our guess that this next year will be more of
the same.
So, Father, in
anticipation of what will happen this coming year, we give our thanks to You.
You are going to do some pretty amazing things in our lives. There will be the
many ways in which Your blessings will make our lives so much better. We look
forward to growing in our understanding of You as well as our enjoyment of You.
You are going to show us more of Your kindness and faithfulness and power. And
that will be so very good. We thank You now for that.
To be sure, we are
also going to experience troubles. But that does not undo us. We know that even
the bad things that we will face come from Your hand and are the means that You
will use to bring about tremendous good. And we rejoice in that, even though it
will cost us. We would just ask that You would supply us with what we need to
trust Your goodness as we work our way through those darker days.
Father, just as
looking forward is good, so is looking back. As we do look back over the years,
we are grateful to You for Your faithfulness to us. We can see a bit better
from this vantage point that You really did know what You were doing, more
evidence that You really are a good God.
Father, one of these
days all of this will come to an end. No more good days and bad days. Jesus
will return, and life will be transformed. It will be like the Garden of Eden,
except better. We look forward to that day, Father. And with all the saints we
say, ‘Even so, come Lord Jesus’.