A Prayer for the New Year
As I close this last year’s chapter of my life I thank you, Father, for the blessing of your presence in every moment of every day. When I was troubled or frightened or anxious or afraid you did not abandon me. You gave me confidence and strength to walk into and through the storm. In the normal, regular every day moments you were walking with me even when I was not aware of your presence. When I was joyful or happy or peaceful you rejoiced with me. You gave me those memorable moments with family and friends that I will cherish till my last breath. I look forward into this new year with some trepidation because I do not know what tragedies, failures, and troubles will cross my path. But what I do know, what I trust, what I depend on, what I could not survive without, is your presence to again comfort and guide through those stormy seas. I also anticipate with delight those days of warm sun and soft breezes when life is good and pleasurable that you make possible to share with those I love. I praise you for the promise, pleasure, protection, and power of your presence.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139
In His Service,
-Milan
