A Prayer for the New Year

Looking for a God-honoring way to ring in the New Year as a mom? Look forward to your future with Christ with a prayer for the New Year.

Have you ever noticed a tendency in yourself to keep an inventory of all you have struggled through? Maybe you review it frequently. Perhaps you feel like it justifies the things you didn’t get done this past year, or you are stuck on ways you feel you failed in your parenting.

I find that I struggle with that inclination to catalog terrible events myself. When I wonder where the past four years went, and what exactly I was doing, I remember the death of my dad, the health crises of loved ones, and my own traumatic injury.

Yet, we find in Scripture that our proclivity to focus on pain, rather than on God’s sovereign hand in our lives, is the opposite of God’s will for us.

We can learn much from God’s words to the people of Judah in Isaiah 43.

A Prayer for the New Year

Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings forth chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
“Remember not the former things,
nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43:16-19, ESV

Isaiah was a prophet to the kings of Judah–to Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah–more than one hundred years before God exiled the people of Judah to Babylon for their rebellion against him. Now, that was a bad year! It was also a really long time ago, in 586 BC.

Yet, God sent Isaiah beforehand to remind the people that when they were exiled, they must remember to look to God, trusting him as their Creator and Redeemer. The Lord tells his people that he is sovereign. He is actively working in their lives, and they must look forward to the new things he is doing.

God reminds the Judeans that he is the Lord–the great I AM of Exodus 3:14, who introduced himself to Moses. God led the Israelites from captivity in Egypt, through the parted waters of the Red Sea, while conquering their enemies in the swirling waves.

Then, he urges them to look forward. The shouldn’t be looking back at the things that were hard, the former things of old. Instead, they should pay attention to what God is doing in their lives now. He is working today, just as he did in the past.

When we struggle to let go of the past, we can remember God’s words to the people of Judah through his prophet, Isaiah. Even better, we can pray God’s words right back to him. It’s a wonderful way to pray God’s will in our lives!

Heavenly Father, you are the Great I AM. You declared yourself to Moses, and you rescued the people of Israel from enslavement to the Egyptians. You conquered the enemies of your people by your mighty power. I know that you are working in my life today, too. I see your hand in my past. Lord, help me not to remember the former things. Keep me from considering the things of old. Let me remember–and see–that you are doing a new thing. Help me perceive that your work in my life is springing forth. You are making a way in the wilderness of my situation, and rivers through the desert of my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

This new year, look to the new thing God is doing in your life and in your family.

Danika Cooley’s 60-day devotional, 60 Scriptures You Can Pray, is packed with thoughtful explanations of biblical prayer and practical application. It is the tool you need to learn more about prayer–straight from God’s Word. Danika is an award-winning children’s author and Bible curriculum developer. Her popular Bible Road Trip™ curriculum is used by tens of thousands of families.

Learn more about 60 Scriptures You Can Pray and grab free journal pages and a letter for your women’s Bible study here.