The New Year is NOT a Means of Grace...
A Puritan Prayer for the New Year
Many have the “New Year, new me” mentality. As the resolutions flow from our thoughts to a piece of paper (or note on our phone), we believe that all of the failures of the past year will simply get left there as we run toward new horizons. Have you ever thought this way? I know I have. The calendar shifts, and all of a sudden, my contemplative self envisions a new person taking on the next 365 days.
I’ve had to remind myself that the calendar change from 2024 to 2025 is not a means of grace (a channel through which God grants grace to grow in Christ). I’m already a new creation in Christ through the gospel, and the means of grace are the means of grace—they remain the same and flow from the God Who is all-sufficient (His Word, prayer, baptism & the Lord’s Supper).
It’s okay to have the mentality of renewal and fresh dependence upon God. The New Year provides a fresh occasion to take inventory and pursue Christ more authentically. I get it. But let us not look to our resolutions (Law) for hope, but always Christ.
“And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).
I pray you’re blessed by this Puritan prayer, which sums this up beautifully:
“GIVER OF ALL GOOD,
Streams upon streams of love overflow my path.
You have made me out of nothing, have recalled me from a far country,
have translated me from ignorance to knowledge,
from darkness to light,
from death to life,
from misery to peace,
from folly to wisdom,
from error to truth,
from sin to victory.
Thanks be to You for my high and holy calling.
I bless You for ministering angels,
for the comfort of Your Word,
for the ordinances of Your church,
for the teaching of Your Spirit,
for Your holy sacraments,
for the communion of saints,
for Christian fellowship,
for the recorded annals of holy lives,
for examples sweet to allure,
for beacons sad to deter.
Your will is in all Your provisions to enable me to grow in grace, and to be ready for Your eternal presence.
My heaven-born faith gives promise of eternal sight, my new birth a pledge of never-ending life.
I draw near to You, knowing You will draw near to me. I ask of You, believing You have already given, I entrust myself to You, for You have redeemed me. I bless and adore You, the eternal God, for the comfort of these thoughts, the joy of these hopes.”
Amen.
-The Valley of Vision
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