2021 is finally over. We survived. We made it. We’re still here. 2022 will be so much better right?
Well…that’s what we thought coming out of 2020.
If there’s anything we should know by now is that we have no idea what the new year will be like, and the proper posture is to be ready for anything.
This was my prayer at the end of last year as we launched 2021:
For all the questions, may there be wisdom.
For all the pain, may there be healing.
For all the loss, may there be joy.
For all the hate, may there be peace.
For all the waiting, may there be grace.
For all the lonely, may there be love.
For all that lies ahead, may there be strength.
For all and for all to come, may we know Him.
Our All. In. All.
#2021prayer
As I read and re-read those words I penned 12 months ago, I had no idea that they would be so relevant and still needed. In fact, I could repost this as is, and not a line would need to be edited. But here we are again, staring into the fog bank of a new year with no more certainty and no more normalcy.
Where do we look for clarity? The Word of God is a great place to begin.
“In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.” 2 Peter 1:5-7
In AD 64-66 from Rome, Peter wrote these words. His second letter to the churches in Asia Minor was written to counteract the heresy of false teachers and division in their ranks. But it was also penned to encourage believers to stand firm together in the face of persecution and embedded in spiritual maturity through the Word of God. Peter could have penned these words today. We live in similar circumstances and with a similar need.
So, this is a prayer for 2022 built on the apostle’s 2000-year-old words:
- For ambiguity, hypocrisy, and inconsistencies of today, may we live with “moral excellence.”
- For the questions, complexities, and unknowns of tomorrow, may we live with deep “wisdom”
- For the temptation to react and overreact, may we live with unwavering “self-control.”
- For the tyranny of the urgent and the annoyances with a lack of quick fixes, may we live with “patient endurance.”
- For shallow lives, inch-deep discipleship, unbecoming actions and attitudes, may we live with real-deal “godliness”
- For division, disunity, and so the world we will know we are His disciples, may we live with deep “brotherly affection.”
- For the friends and enemies, those we agree with and disagree with, for those of renown and those who are unknown, for lost, the lonely and the least, may we live with “love for everyone.”
In everything, in this new year, in our lives, let us keep the main thing the main thing.
“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:13 NLT
About
