My prayer for the new year is that God will restore that which was lost. All my hopes and dreams. Every hurt, every pain, every loss, every gain. Every broken thing that’s been turned into ashes, God can redeem and use it for His glory. He can heal. He can provide. He can forgive. He can restore.
Does something in your life need to be restored? Maybe it’s a relationship, finances, job, or health. This new year, I want to purpose to place my hope in the only one who gives hope; trust in the only one who is trustworthy; and have faith in the only one who remains faithful even when I am faithless.
I want this to be a year where I see all the broken things of the past restored in Him. I want to allow Him to revive, restore, redeem and make all things new.
I don’t often read the Message version of the Bible, but I stumbled across this the other day and thought it was a beautiful way to put into words what my prayer is for this year…well, everything except the part about having more babies and calves.
God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. No matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed. It will be yours again. He will give you a good life and make you more numerous than your ancestors. God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. God, your God, will put all these curses on your enemies who hated you and were out to get you. And you will make a new start, listening obediently to God, keeping all his commandments that I’m commanding you today. God, your God, will outdo himself in making things go well for you: you’ll have babies, get calves, grow crops, and enjoy an all-around good life. Yes, God will start enjoying you again, making things go well for you just as he enjoyed doing it for your ancestors.
Deuteronomy 30:3-9
The caveat is that God demands my total obedience. He wants all of me; nothing halfhearted. It’s not out of my reach and not too much for me to handle.
So here’s to holding nothing back this new year!