Thursday, December 31, 2009

December 31

"Father God, I thank You for Your kindness and mercy which has allowed me to see the end of still another year. Certainly, there have been moments in my life which have pleased You, but far more have, no doubt, caused You to shake Your head in disappointment. So, even as I thank You, I ask once again for forgiveness for those moments of living which have been less than what they should have been. Help me, Father God, to live up to Your expectations and to be about Your agenda in the places where You have put me.
But, more than this prayer for myself is the prayer in my heart tonight for so many others whose lives have intersected with my own. They have intersected because of the way You have enabled our paths to cross over the years. I remember so many of them tonight and ask Your abundant blessings upon them. I ask You to encourage and help, to forgive and to love. I pray for those who continue to struggle with chronic family problems. I ask for Your healing powers to rest heavy on those whose bodies are broken. I pray for the ones whose hearts have been shattered by the undesired circumstances of life. And, I pray, too, for each church to which You have sent me and ask that You would grant a powerful season of spiritual renewal.
Carry us all forward into Your future and into Your will. Give us grace to receive what touches our life from Your hand and such an awareness of Your Holy Spirit that we are never tempted to turn aside from the way of faithfulness. In Jesus name...in Jesus name...Amen."

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