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If you do not have the Lecio 365 app from 24/7 Prayer, I would encourage you to consider downloading it. It is my favourite daily scripture and prayer meditation.  Patrick

December 31 - Today is Saturday the 31st of December, and it’s the final day of 2022. So far this week, we have been reflecting on the year just gone, using an ancient method of prayer known as the Examen. Today we are looking ahead into 2023.

Pause: As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly, to re-centre my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

Prayer of Approach: Loving Father, please help me to be still. I open my ears to hear You now and I quietly prepare my heart for all that You have for me as I approach the new year.

Rejoice and Reflect: I choose to rejoice in God’s guidance today, joining with the ancient praise of all God’s people in the words of Psalm 25... Show me the right path, O LORD; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you. Psalm 25:4-5 (NLT)

Pause and pray: Hebrews 11 is a roll-call of faith-full heroes in the Bible, and the following chapter begins with an invitation for me to join in with them… Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 (MSG)

Here, and elsewhere in the Bible (Isa. 43:18, Prov. 4:25, Phil. 3:12-14), I am encouraged not to dwell too much on the failures or the successes of what has gone before, but to fix my eyes on what is ahead, to where Jesus is leading and guiding me. The final stage of the Examen involves looking forward with faith.

Ask: And so, as I look ahead into 2023, how do I feel about the new year? What am I hoping for? What am I excited about? What are my apprehensions and anxieties? Lord God, I surrender all that I am feeling about 2023 to You, and I ask You to speak to me. Show me a particular verse or a story from the Bible, or maybe a picture, that You want me to carry into the new year.

Pause and pray: Turning my prayers outwards, I ask God to show me who He wants me to pray for today. Lord God, I ask You to give me a verse or story from the Bible, or a picture, that You want to encourage this person with as they enter the new year.

Yield: As I return to the passage, I open my ears to hear Your word, and my heart to yield to Your will once again. Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 (MSG) At the 1924 Olympics in Paris, the Scottish sprinter, Eric Liddell, refused to run the 100 metre heats because they were held on a Sunday. So he entered the 400 metres instead and won the gold medal. ‘It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal,’ he said. ‘But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals.’*

Yielding Prayer: Lord Jesus, I yield myself to You and Your plans for me in 2023. Help me to throw off anything that will hold me back, and to carry forward the good things that I have gained and the holy habits that I have learned in 2022. I fix my eyes on You, and I run the race that You have marked out for me in this new year.

Yielding Promise: And now, as I prepare to take this time of prayer into the coming day, the Lord who loves me says in Matthew: ‘Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.’ Matthew 11:29-30 (MSG)

Closing Prayer: Father, help me to live this day to the full, being true to You, in every way. Jesus, help me to give myself away to others, being kind to everyone I meet.  Spirit, help me to love the lost, proclaiming Christ in all I do and say. Amen.   * Janet and Geoff Benge, Eric Liddell: Something Greater than Gold, (YWAM Publishing, 1999). ** To find out more about how to pray the Examen click here