Friday January 10 2014

Looking Back: A Prayer for the New Year

From January 1914

ALMIGHTY GOD, in Whom we live and move and have our being, we bring to Thee our humble prayer at the beginning of a New Year.

For Thy mercy to us in the past of our life we thank Thee. For our comfort, our prosperity, and our achievement we bless Thy holy name, for all come from Thee.

We recall with penitence and sorrow the opportunities we have neglected, the talents we have wasted, the holy lessons we have not taken to heart. As we look back upon the past and review its failures and its sins, we cry unto Thee for forgiveness.

O gracious Father, Whose tender mercies are over all Thy works, we consecrate ourselves unto Thee anew. As we go forth into the future, even as Abraham into the strange land not knowing whither he went, we pray for that faith in Thee by which the fathers of old were sustained. Grant us such an assurance of Thy presence as will let us adventure upon the New Year without anxiety and distress. Establish us in the knowledge of Thy goodness, so that none of the uncertainties of life can disturb us and none of its opportunities of service find us unprepared.

Save us from standing still in the life of righteousness or from falling backward into evil. And may we grow during the year in wisdom and spirituality and the love and service of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Grant peace and prosperity unto our Empire during the coming year. God save the King; and guide all in authority. God save the people. May the ruler and those who are ruled be alike the subjects of our great Master and Lord.

For Thy Church in Scotland we humbly pray that the spirit of charity and union may flourish and ripen, that the leaders of the Church may be led by the Holy Ghost, and that the members of the Church may provoke one another unto good works.

All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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