A prayer as we enter a New Year

Scotty Smith posts daily prayers on the Gospel Coalition website - you can find them and follow him here: Scotty Smith - Heavenward . I have often found them helpful, both humbling & uplifting at the same time. 

Here's one that he posted last Sunday, 5th January, the first Sunday of the 2020. It was posted under the title, What is your 'This'?

****

This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead...

We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 2 Cor. 1:9; 4:7

     Heavenly Father, there are some gospel-freedoms that are difficult to remember and honour. Accepting our limits is certainly one of them. The "cult of competency" is bad religion, but it has a horde of followers.

     Forgive us for wanting to do and be more than you intend. Forgive us for not wanting to need the Gospel and your Spirit, close friends, and rest as much as you say we do.

     Thank you for the precious glimpse into Paul's humanity, chronicled in this Scripture. We’re glad, that as the “apostle of grace,” Paul boasted in his weaknesses that Jesus might be the hero in his story. Paul had no need to be “omni-competent,” or impress us. Help us, too, accept our “jar-of-clay-ness.”

     Thank you for making this lover of God utterly dependent on the God he loved with delight. We want to follow Paul as he followed Jesus. So, on this first Sunday in 2020, we forsake the illusion of our sufficiency and cast ourselves, along with our cares, on you— “the God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9).

     We’re not facing deadly perils (like Paul), but we are living with relationship challenges, broken stories we can’t right, in a world that feels bent on self-destruction. Many of us have lingering wounds that need healing, an ageing process we can’t control, and longer to-do lists than hours in the day. Being poured out is a gospel thing; being burned out is a foolish thing.

     Father, grant us grace to embrace our limits and joy for boasting in our weaknesses. Thank you for being the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. May we treasure the Gospel more than ever in 2020. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus' kind and grace-full name.