It has been a year of change. Only by faith in your promise, O Eternal One, can I call it all good. The one through whom you taught me to love as you love has left me, and is now whole, peaceful and victorious in your embrace.
Eternal Master, you gave your Word to us for our righteous instruction, your incarnate Word to reconcile yourself to your rebellious children, and your Holy Spirit of love to indwell us for your Great Commission. Even so, Heavenly Father, I see in myself and those around me, even in those who claim your Son’s holy name, traces of the juvenile stubbornness and shards of the brittle wickedness that placed between us the infinite gulf of sin.
What grief, our stiff-necks cause you. What pain, our willful sin brings you. Though your wisdom and power move the universe at your command, still you chose in your steadfast grace to love the least worthy of these, your creation, with the intimacy of your Son’s shed blood.
Sovereign Master, I bow my head, my will, before you, longing for your Holy Spirit to complete the good work you began in me, so that I and my brethren can love this dying world as you do. Let 2011 be the last year we your body cringe before the world’s counterfeit power, clinging to our pitiful possessions and our impotent independence. Let 2012 be the year you complete your eternal plan.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
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