May 2012 be a year of blessings

1. A Prayer
For a New Year

2. Good and gracious God,
2011 was not the year we hoped it to be.

3. Before we begin this new year
remind us that we should never be
satisfied
with any year.

4. Remind us that the pursuit
of heaven on earth should always be
our goal.
Remind us that while that goal
always seems to be beyond our reach,
we are called to reach for it non-the-less.

5. Remind us that when our arms
seem to be about to fall out of their
sockets
because we must stretch ourselves so far
to reach and pull this planet toward
your peaceable kin-dom here on Earth…

6. Remind us that you are with us,
that you will strengthen us,
that you still call us,
to a better,
higher,
more acceptable
way.

7. Giving God,
May 2012 be a year of blessings.
Not necessarily on ourselves,
but on those in need.

8. For too many people
come into the new year
eating black-eyed peas and leafy greens
as a way to bring about prosperity-
failing to recognize the abudance
you have already planted in their lives.

9. In this false sense of lacking,
all too frequently, we find ourselves
holding back from giving as freely
as you call as to do.

10. May 2012 be a year of blessings.
May we recognize the blessings we have,
and share so abundantly of them
that others, whose lives might be truly
lacking,
may more fully know the abundance
and blessings of your creation,
and the extent of your graciousness.

11. Healing God,
Far too many in this world,
lack the basics of life.
Basics that should be considered
human rights.
In 2012 may we open our eyes to the
connectedness
of life.

12. By your design, in the words of Dr. King,
“We are caught in an inescapable network
of mutuality...”
which means “Injustice anywhere is
a threat to justice everywhere.”

13. Far too many suffer from the injustice
of not having their basic needs met,
their fundamental human rights met;

14. clean water,
enough food,
safety,
a roof under which to sleep,
access to health care,
the right to be treated with
dignity,
the right to be treated equally,

15. freedom from slavery,
freedom from
discrimination,
access to education,
reasonable privacy,
life,
the pursuit of happiness.

16. Help us to not only recognize these rights,
but to recognize that when
any lack in them,
it is a threat to all of your Creation.

17. Encourage us to pursue access for all
people
to these basic human rights...
May we “not be satisfied
until justice rolls down like waters
and righteousness
like a mighty stream.”

18. God of all wisdom,
guide us in 2012, .
for we have lost our way.
In the fundamentalism of this world,
we have lost sight of the fundamentals of
who you call us to be
and the fundamentals of a peaceable kin-
dom realized.

19. Call us back from our Earthly desires of
power, prestige and self-promotion
and return us to the pursuit of
the Divine image in whose likeness
we were formed.

20. May 2012 be the year of our pursuit of
hope,
grace,
peace,
love....
May 2012 be the year of our earnest
pursuit of
You.
AMEN

21. Prayer by Mark A. Sandlin
Used with permission
thegodarticle.com
Music: Secret Garden
PPS A..a