Friday Prayer, January 1, 2016

Photo by Lori Archer Raible
Photo by Lori Archer Raible

Loving God,

We praise you, we thank you, for holding our hand in the start of a new year.

January always seems to bring a desire for more control over our lives. We make resolutions, set our path toward long-held dreams, fix our homes and our schedules to help us succeed. We want so much, God, to have security. To feel like we know what’s coming, and that we’ll be ready for it. To tell our lives what needs to happen and say, “I’m in charge.”

But already, Lord, life has changed and is different than we thought it would be.

The unexpected, the unwanted, the unexplained have happened. The person who said they’d love us forever died. The new job we were promised  didn’t come through. The child we adore is deathly sick. The accident left us on a long road paved with surgeries and therapy. The friendship we’d hoped to rekindle won’t take the spark.

And then there are all the changes, God, that we maybe did anticipate – that we even planned – and now we’re treading upon this shifting soil, asking your hand to hold and carry us into this new land.

A very good land, but a different land.

As our Creator, you are Birthing Mother, always re-creating, always open to change. You, God, can teach us that while change is eternally constant, so is your presence. You can help us know in our bones that hope is born through struggle, and that change is an invitation to grow. That when something leaves, something new comes in its place. Give us the wisdom of soul, loving God, to look for it.

As we step into the weekend,  may we have soft hearts that are open to change, sensitive to one another’s pain, resilient with hope.

Your grace sustains us. And we praise you for that.

In your name, Christ, we pray. Amen.

4 Comments

  1. Arianne, Thank you again for your prayer. Yesterday I passed it on to a cousin and the son of my cousin in Atlanta who is suffering from cancer. James Quinn, the son, who organizes a prayer conference for his mother was so impressed with your prayer that he read it in the opening today with cousins and friends that tune in from various places. He also composed a prayer for his mother that I will send you later after I receive it. My other cousin, Will Hoekman who lives in Des Moines always sends a hymn that he sings at the close of our half hour, and today he sang, “He Speaks To Me.” I can forward that on for your understanding of what we have done on Saturdays for most of 2015. Blessings, Gene

  2. Arianne, your New Years Day devotional dpoke to my heart in my first day of retirement. It spoke of change and hope. Thank you and God ‘s blessings. Val putnam

    1. Thank you so much, Val! God’s peace to you in this year of new horizons and blessings! It was such a joy to read the article about you and Westminster in the Argus!

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