Here we are God,
A new year – new resolutions, new hopes,
new problems, new decisions…
and the same old US.
We are determined to start afresh
But this year’s model of new men and women
looks much like last year’s.

Eternal God, you know us as we are.
You have seen better men and women than we
start the new year with the same sense of disappointment
that we can’t be changed, by miracle, overnight.

Help us to put ourselves ‘into your hands’
for your hands have been shaping lives
from generation to generation.
In your unchanging love, we would lose our broken promises and our failed hopes –
for, what ever else may crumble and break this year,
your faithfulness lasts for ever.

Grant that we may live this new year
believing in you, trusting in you,
relying on your love for us, so that,
at the year’s end,
we may not be just one year older,
but one year nearer you.

AMEN