Before we ring in the new year with singing, dancing, eating, drinking, and watching the infamous ball drop in Times Square, I thought a new year could use a new prayer. If ever the world needed Jesus, whether they know it or not, it is now. If ever the world needed discernment, wisdom, and grace it is now. So if you’ll join me…let’s pray:
We seek Your face because we are a needy people. We’ve spent generations trying to fix our broken world. If we are truly honest, most of us still think that if we just try one more thing, we can mend our fractured relationships, find success in our next project, stumble upon a solution that might heal our worn-out bodies, or simply find peace in a country, state, city, home, that is quickly falling apart.
The truth is, we can’t do any of these things. You know we’ve tried. We’ve become a people of self-sufficiency, self-indulgence, self-promotion, self-preservation, and self-satisfaction. You said we would end up this way without You. We don’t listen to You very well. 
Lord, we don’t deserve Your mercy, but oh how thankful we are for Your kindness and patience that leads us back to You. It is Your kindness that leads us to repent, turn around, change our minds from the futile way we think to seek You. To see the truth about who we are and who You are and why we really need Jesus.
“See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
We always hope for a new thing – for breakthroughs in places where we are stuck. A new year tells us that change is possible.
But, Lord, a new year also holds a world of unknowns. How many loved ones will we lose this year? Who among us will struggle with a new devastating diagnosis? Will we continue to lose sight of the truth and follow deceptive teachings in our churches, our schools, our governments? When will we stop hating each other simply because we have a difference of opinion? Whatever happened to the ability to listen to each other, to ask questions, to try to understand, and then if we have to, agree to disagree? Will this year polarize our world more than it is today?
Will racism and hatred and war continue? When will we wake up enough to see that things you prophesied in Scripture are happening before our eyes but we’re too blind to see it? You told us what to look for as signs of Your coming, and yet we don’t even notice them. You said Babylon would be a major player at the end of the age, and even now it is being rebuilt. What does it take for us to recognize that Your Word is truth?
There are so many things I’d still like to see and do in this life here. But I’m also very aware that time is short. Your coming could be imminent, and at any moment all of my plans could be at an end with the glory of Your coming. I look forward to that day! My plans mean nothing in comparison. 
You said that many would hear the truth but not everyone would believe it. Some would believe for a while, but then leave–caught up in the cares of this world. Desires for other things would silence the things they once believed. Remind them, Lord, how much You love them.
You warn us in Scripture that today is the day of salvation. Don’t harden your hearts against His voice. Life is too short to wait, thinking we have plenty of time.
Save us from ourselves and our self-delusion that we are all right just the way we are. If we think that, we need a perspective change.
As 2026 begins, Sovereign Lord, please give us faith to put You first in our lives and then in our families and in our world. Make us strong men and women of faith and grace. Give us a passion for You like no other. And help us to forgive what’s past, turn from all that is wrong, and embrace what is good. You are good.
Please give us grace and peace in 2026. We look forward to Your coming. Help us to be ready before that day.
In Jesus’ Holy Name, Amen.
#prayerforanewyear #2026
The Conversation
The Lord bless you mightily Jill you have put in to words what we all need to hear and pray, the greatist event of all to come is our Lord Jesus and i love the thought of that!!! My prayer is always today perhaps, each day that pass’s is one more day to His coming to take us home, but untill then we must be watching and waiting with great discernment, being aware of our enemys tactics, and keeping the faith. again thank you Jill, and may you and yours have a blessed New Year!!
Thank you, Marie! May God bless you and yours in the coming year! And may everyone we pray for be captured by the love of Jesus and become His own.