CHRISTIAN NEWS MAGAZINE FOR KERALA MALAYALEE CHRISTIANS FROM INDIA AROUND THE WORLD
JANUARY 2008 ARTICLE
VOL:07 ISSUE:01

A PRAYER FOR THE NEW YEAR
By REV. DR. JOHN T. MATHEW, CANADA

Eternal God of our fathers and mothers – of Abraham, Hagar and Sarah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob, Leah and Rachel, once again we are gathered here in your holy house as we cross the threshold into another New Year; some of our children for the very first time, for some the first new year without a loved one; but all of us, sustained by the prayers and blessings of millions of faithful worshippers around our fragile planet earth, with praise and thanks pause in our joint pilgrimage to offer you gratitude for your unfailing love and mercy in the past week, past month, past tumultuous year – indeed many years -- and for several among us three or four score and even many more.

Gracious God, we pray for your grace as we stand at the crossroads of this frenzied life – some in doubt and fear, some with courage and confidence; some in debt and crammed in lonely low-income apartments, others in warm, spacious homes; some physically infirm and aging, some in good health and youthful vigor; some tired of hospitals and cold nursing homes, some preparing for vacations and cruises in the warm sun; some too careless to appreciate life as a gift while others are just putting in time.

Forgive us our crippling criticism of others and help us to look beyond and see the best in them; forgive us our tunnel vision and self-righteousness and mould us flexible enough to accept others as they are; forgive us when we take our sincere friends and precious members of our family for granted and enable us to hold them in our prayers and love always; and forgive us when arrogantly and sometimes stubbornly we lie to ourselves and to others that our life is too stressed out to take time to play with our young children, to understand and appreciate our youth and care for our aged parents and grandparents; that our resources are too scarce to feed the hungry and homeless, to let out the oppressed and to receive the social pariahs into our homes in the name of Jesus, the Messiah; that our resolve is too sloppy to seek newer ways to break down the blockades and barriers between people divided by cosmic chasms of race, religion and resources. Grant us your grace to do what is just as the prophet of old taught us, to show constant love and to live in humble fellowship with you. Give us your gentle prodding to get out of the rut we are in and let us hear your small voice, wrapped in silence, as the horizons of the future summon us to fresh starts all over again; new challenges, clear visions and deep insights so that we may the Christ in others.

Finally, as we enter this New Year, we leave behind all our personal fears, sighs, suspicions and uncertainties and worries here in your holy house and we go into your world to serve you and your people, reminded of those most assuring words:-

Dependent on Thy bounteous breath,
We seek Thy grace alone,
In childhood, manhood, age and death,
To keep us still Thine own.*
Amen.

(* ‘ By cool Siloam’s shady rill’ by Reginald Heber)

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