new years prayer...

i read the most awesome prayer yesterday in one of my devotionals...i just had to share....
for my men readers...this is a women's devotional...so excuse the she, hers etc...and add he, his...etc...it still applies though...

if i were to to say i've made a new years resolution...i guess this prayer would summarize it...my goal this year and every year...is to grow in my walk with the Lord....that i may be so in sync with him...that everything else...just falls in comparison...

this is written by wendy blight...who decided one year to forego the resolutions...and instead write a prayer...

Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord.” Lamentations 2:19a (NKJV)

here are her words:

It’s a new year. What is on your heart? What would you like to accomplish? What would you like to change? Have you made any New Year’s Resolutions?

A few years ago, I gave up making New Year’s Resolutions. I could never keep them. One year, instead of a resolution, I wrote a prayer. Throughout the year, I watched in amazement as God worked in my life and in the lives of others through my simple prayer.

Today, I would like to pray for you. Below is the prayer that the Lord put on my heart. As you read it, I invite you to use it as a model. Sit with the Lord and ask Him to help you personalize this prayer for you.

Father in heaven, thank You that You are Sovereign. Thank You that You know each precious woman reading this devotion. You planned for her to meet You here today. You created her heart. You know her every need, her deepest desires, and her open wounds. Lord, I ask that in this new year, You would fall afresh on her.

Father, You are Holy and call us to be Holy. Yet, we confess that so often our hearts wander from You, our speech does not glorify You, and our actions do not honor You. Soften our hearts to receive the words Your sweet Spirit has to speak to us. Clothe us with humility. Take away our desire to always be right and have our own way. Help us to seek Your Word in all that we say and do. Help us to submit to Your Word; allow it to penetrate those deep places in our hearts that resist change. If necessary, put us through the refiner’s fire to burn off those things that keep us from walking in step with Your character.

Give us hearts that love and seek after Truth above all else. Give us wisdom and discernment to reject the lies of this world and the evil one. Guide us into all Truth. Guard our hearts and keep our eyes fixed on You. Grow in us those things that will make us more like You. As we study Your Word, fill us and saturate us with You!

Today, Father, we surrender our thoughts, our speech, and our hearts. Thank You that You are Faithful and True. We trust You will do a mighty work in us and through us this year and carry it on to completion until the day we step into eternity with You. Help us to trust in You with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding. Help us to acknowledge You in all our ways so that we can hear Your voice as You say, “This is the way, walk in it.”

Lord, we love You and thank You that You love us. May our lives be a living testimony of You. We ask this in the powerful and mighty name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord who will do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.