God, we begin this year knowing that we are not in control. We’ve made our plans, dreamed our dreams, and written our resolutions, but only You know what tomorrow holds.

You are sovereign – the Keeper of time, the Holder of this moment, the Writer of tomorrow. Nothing surprises You, and on that truth we rest our heads in peace at night. 

You are gracious – You give us limitless second chances and good gifts from up above. The fact that we have breath in our lungs is a gift of grace. We aren’t here for ourselves or our own glory – we live for You. We are utterly dependent on You. We can’t take a single step without Your strength at work within us. We can’t do anything worthwhile without Your Spirit moving in our hearts.

We need You, God.

You are holy – You allow stand sin to be in Your presence. Yet You made a way for the gap to be bridged through the cross of Christ, and now we can freely come to You because of His righteousness. You loved us at our worst, and You are loving us each day into becoming more like Christ. You love us too much to leave us in our shackles of sin. You are greater than any stronghold. No barrier is too high for You, no valley to deep for You, no bondage is to strong for you to break. You require us to be holy as You are holy, and we want to live a life that pleases You.

You are jealous – You deserve all glory, honor, and praise. You desire our hearts affection because nothing and no one else is worthy of it. You rightfully deserve infinite praises and whole-hearted adoration. Keep our hearts from loving anything more than we love You. Strip us of pride, self-centeredness, and envy. In place of our self, give us more of Jesus. Give us humility that bends down low to dine with the poor, to provide for the needy, to serve even when we don’t feel like. Give us mercy that acts justly towards those whom have received injustice at the merciless hands of others. Give us compassion that acts and cares for those whose hearts are broken. And give us contentment and the ability to see that what You have given us is more than enough. We have all we could ever need in Christ Jesus.

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You are all these things and a thousand things more. We don’t want to waste this year, but we know this is only possible through Your work within our hearts. We know that hard times with come and we will encounter the unexpected. We know there will be moments we want to give up, to complain, to compare, and to doubt. We know that we will inevitably fail, fall short, and falter. But we know that You are greater than our inconsistencies, and You are able to move for Your glory through our willingness.

We want You, God, more than anything this year. We give up that which is vain and empty and we want to stop chasing after the wind. Instead, we chase Jesus, because we know that when we chase after You we find You.

We begin this year in the most necessary position: on our knees, because when we get down low, we can see You most clearly.

Oh, God, words cannot even begin to describe our need for You, so we leave it here with this simple cry:

We need You. We love You. Be glorified in and through and all around us.

In Jesus’ name, Amen (So Be It)