Heavenly Father I praise You as we start a new year. I praise You for allowing mankind more time to repent and to follow You. I praise You for Your patience and Your grace. I praise You for creating me for a purpose and entrusting me to fulfill it. I praise You for having faith in us when we don’t deserve it, or always believe it ourselves. I praise You for having patience when we either do not have faith, enough faith or question our faith in You.
Holy Spirit each day I work, breathe, live, and walk this earth let my labor not be in vain, and help me to be spirit-led by You. Help me to be faithful to listen, understand, and then respond. Let me be faithful to: Watch, stand fast in the faith, be bold like men, and be strong. Let it always be done with love. Help me to remember: And now abide in faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. [1 Corinthians 16:13 & 14; 1 Corinthians 13:13]
And this is my prayer: that my love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that I may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Let me continually offer the sacrifice of praise to You, oh God, that is, the fruit of my lips, giving thanks to Your name. Help me not to forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices You are well pleased. I will do my best to obey those who rule over me and be submissive for they watch out for my soul, and they will give account for how they lead. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for me. For I am confident that I have a good conscience, in all things desiring to live honorably. But I am especially urged to do this. Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make me complete in every good work to do His will, working in me what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen [Philippians 1:9-11; Hebrews 13:14-21]