Thank God for another new year!

Malipayong bag-ong tuig! Another new year is here!

How shall we choose to meet and welcome this new year? We cannot go wrong if we start this year by thanking the Lord for another dawn, for another beginning, for His companionship and love and grace.

We can decide to proceed with faith, that despite our human frailties and fears, God is always with us for this new year, just as He had been with us through last year and the years before.

We can continue our walk with the Lord, believing that, as in the past years, He is always before us, knowing what is best for us because He loves us best.

We can start the new year by surrendering to God our past, our present, and our future because His time is best, His love for us immeasurable.

We can pray for peace within ourselves, within our nation, and throughout the world. We can pray together as a people, as a nation, as a global community. There are so many to pray for and so many reasons to pray about.

Many others have met the new year with their prayers. Allow us to share some of these:

An anonymous writer wrote this prayer to start a new year:

“A new year is unfolding—like a blossom with petals curled tightly concealing the beauty within. Lord, let this year be filled with the things that are truly good—with the comfort of warmth in our relationships, with the strength to help those who need our help and the humility and openness to accept help from others.

As we make our resolutions for the year ahead, let us go forward with great hope that all things can be possible—with Your help and guidance.”

Another anonymous writer shared his Recipe for a Happy New as follows:

Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time. Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so many persons spoil the entire lot this way) but prepare one day at a time.

Into each day put equal parts of faith, patience, courage, work (some people omit this ingredient and so spoil the flavor of the rest), hope, fidelity, liberality, kindness, rest (leaving this out is like leaving the oil out of the salad dressing— don’t do it), prayer, meditation, and one well-selected resolution. Put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humor.

The next New Year’s prayer, entitled, A Year of Time. was written by Steven B. Cloud ( Pulpit Helps, Vol. 14, # 2). He wrote:

…Though even thinking on the subject of time may prove discomforting, it is not a bad idea—especially at the beginning of a new year.

As we look into (2010), we look at a block of time. We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds. And all is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchased it. Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of life.

The gift of time is not ours alone. It is given equally to each person. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant, strong and weak—every man, woman and child has the same twenty-four hours every day.

Another important thing about time is that you cannot stop it. There is no way to slow it down, turn it off, or adjust it. Time marches on.

And you cannot bring back time. Once it is gone, it is gone. Yesterday is lost forever. If yesterday is lost, tomorrow is uncertain. We may look ahead at a full year’s block of time, but we really have no guarantee that we will experience any of it.

Obviously, time is one of our most precious possessions. We can waste it. We can worry over it. We can spend it on ourselves. Or, as good stewards, we can invest it in the kingdom of God .

The new year is full of time. As the seconds tick away, will you be tossing time out the window, or will you make every minute count?

And finally, this next piece, written by Taylor Addison, Blue Mountain Arts, 1989 is a very apt and inspiring peace for the new year. Entitled Time for New Beginnings, he shared this about the new year:

“This is a time for reflection as well as celebration.

As you look back on the past year and all that has taken place in your life,

Remember each experience for the good that has come of it

and for the knowledge you have gained.

Remember the efforts you have made and the goals you have reached.

Remember the love you have shared and the happiness you have brought.

Remember the laughter, the joy, the hard work, and the tears.

And as you reflect on the past year, also be thinking of the new one to come.

Because most importantly, this is a time of new beginnings

and the celebration of life.”

Celebrate new year as a time for more thanksgiving and blessings from the Lord! Happy happy blessed 2010 to you all!

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