LET US TAKE TIME TO REFLECT AND PRAY AS WE ENTER INTO NEW YEAR
1. General Evaluation about the joys and challenges of the year 2022,
· Family
· Health
· Economy
· Education
· Formation
· Friendship
· Social life
· The world in general
· Etc
There have been a lot of challenges and joys which have in these areas
2. Self-Evaluation in the past year:
What went well and what did not go on well, what can I do:· In my spiritual life = prayer and spiritual exercises --- Sins????
· Social life = relationship with family, community members, best friends, my fellows and everyone
· Psychological life and Emotional life = any guilt holding you and me back to, unforgiveness, envy, resentment, anger, despair, desolation, anxiety, fear, self-denial, unworthiness, addictions, loss, joys and sorrows experienced this year, and many others
· Physical life: do you like your size, how do you see yourself in front of others, do you like your body and all your body parts
· Health Wise – how has been your health, any serious illness, what threatened your health, did you take care of yourself well, and others
· Daily Activities: what were the successful activities, what dint work, what went wrong, what might have caused you not to achieve your set goals, how was the cooperation with others, procrastination, ignoring activities, taking for granted, laziness, and all those associated with daily activities etc
· Authority. How did your respond to authority, the decisions made by those in authority, any obedience you showed, reactions to those in authority?
· Charity and justice. How did people help you in one way or the other, how many people did you help and how did you, how did you respond to those in need, marginalized, abandoned, were you just in business, market, area of responsibility, family, work, and how did you respond to the injustices in your family, community, church, and the world in general? Did you become indifferent? Etc
· Set Goals and Vision. Did you achieve goal of this year, or not? What might have gone wrong for you not to achieve your goal, have you achieved the vision and intentions you had for this year, or not and why? Who came to your help?
· Generally, which kind of person were you to yourself, to your family, to your community, to your society, congregation, and the world in general?
In all these do you see the hand of God. Though some things may have seemed tough or unworthy to behold, we have got more reasons to thank God for having enabled us to reach this day
3. New Year intentions and Resolutions
With all these above how do you want 2023 to be for you?
· What do you pray for? = intentions
· What are your resolutions from the experience of the year 2022 and other years?
· What are your targets and goals of this year?
· What is the vison of the year?
· What do you want to retain?
· What do you want to let go?
· Where do you want to develop = talents, and whole person growth?
· And others
Write them on the paper…which will help you to evaluate yourself at the end of the year.
4. SPIRITUAL TIPS TO ENTER NEW YEAR: Scriptural
· Look Back on His Blessings (Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, Psalms 105: 5; 1 Chronicles 16:11-12)
· Focus on The Future, And God’s Plans for You (e.g., For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11)
· Don’t Worry About What Is to Come (Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:6)
· Plan Ahead for The Coming Year (e.g., For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?” Luke 14:28-30)
· Find Contentment in God This Year, And Give Thanks (e.g. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11-13)
5. GUINDING AND CONSOLING SCRIPTURES
1. Exodus 14… Don’t be afraid, move forward…for all will know that I am the Lord
· A pillar of cloud – so that all your problems won’t see you again
· Pillar of fire – to show God’s presence in your life, the Lord is with you and cannot leave you alone
· Pharaoh’s army drowned and so all our worries and problems
As the Lord enabled Israelites pass through Red Sea, and so he will enable us pass through this year with safety, new blessing and renewed hearts
2. Look back on your blessing and how God is promising more blessings on your way…. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced…1 Chronicles 16:11-12. The Lord again says "I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing Genesis 12: 2. This year you will be a blessing and all yours will be blessed. Claim these blessings now.
Even if you have endured such a year as Job had, you have so much for which to be thankful. No suffering or tragedy should overshadow the “love upon love, grace upon grace” (John 1:16) that God pours out over you. “Of His fullness we have all had a share” (John 1:16). The Lord has again “crowned the year” with His bounty (Ps 65:12). “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and just”
“Give thanks to God the Father always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). “Dedicate yourselves to thankfulness” (Col 3:15). “Let the last word be, He is all in all! Let us praise Him the more, since we cannot fathom Him, for greater is He than all His works” (Sir 43:28-29). Thank You, Jesus, for 2020. I love You with all my heart.
Start New Year by Looking at God’s Grace
NEW YEAR PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I thank you for all the blessings, protection, and all everything you have done for me in the year 2022, which were not by merit but from your gratuitous abundant grace. Thank You Lord. I come before at the beginning of the year 2023, to ask you for forgiveness for what may have gone wrong, for the promises to you which I broke and did not fulfil, for the sins I have committed against you and my neighbor, for being a bad witness to your Holy Name, for hurting my fellows, for the things I have done wrongly, for the things I did do and I ought to have done, for the good I did wrongly, for the chances I have missed and have taken for granted, for failing to live up to my vocation, for all the addictions, for failing to be faithful to you all the time, and for all things I know and all those I have forgotten which are against your will, and the common good.
Forgive me Lord and Renew me, make me a new person and give me a new heart as I enter into this new year. By your grace and love I place everything and my life into your hands, take it and use it for your glory during this year 2023 and may I be a blessing and a source of blessing to those who will see, heart, talk, relate and be with me. Make me a sign of your presence to everyone this year and may my life make others give you glory in heaven.
I pray for your Holy Spirit during this year, to lead, guide and rule my life. Shower me with all the blessings I need this year to do your will and to live a life of peace, happiness and harmony with myself and others. I pray for all the gifts, talents and virtues to come and fill me. Develop the good that is me, give me more goods in my life, and dispel all traces of darkness and evil acts in me so that I will live for you and only you Lord. May I, at the end of this year, find all my dreams, goals and visions of this year, and may next year also find me praising and glorifying your name always. Be with me always until the end of my life. Amen
New Year Blessing
The LORD bless us and keep us! The LORD shine his face upon us, and be gracious to us! The LORD look upon us kindly and give us peace! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023
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