For most of us the holidays are over, and it’s time to get back to routine and make plans for the year ahead: maybe you’re planning the ultimate vacation, taking on new work projects, hoping to grow your family, or looking forward to a fresh start with leading a group at church. Whatever it is, why not take a few minutes to deliberately commit your plans for 2017 to God in prayer? (You could print this list out and use it in your quiet times this week.)
Here are five things to pray for 2017 based on these stark words from James 4 v 13-17:
"Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them." (James 4 v 13-17)
Almighty Father, this year please help me to…
1. Trust your sovereignty
Looking ahead to a new year can be daunting—after all, we “do not even know what will happen tomorrow”, let alone next month (v 14). But praise God that he does. Ask God to help you trust that he is in complete control of 2017!
2. Remember that my life is mist
“What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (v 14). Ask our eternal God to give you a healthy view of your own mortality. Life is short—but not meaningless. Pray that you wouldn’t chase after things that are temporary, but instead work to store up treasure in heaven.
Ask God to help you trust that he is in complete control of 2017!
3. Seek your will
“Instead you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’” What are your plans for 2017, at work, at home or at church? Humbly bring them before God now, and acknowledge that it is only “if it is the Lord’s will” that any of them will come to fruition. Ask God to help you make wise choices.
4. Not boast
“You boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil” (v 16). Say sorry to God for ways in which your dreaming and scheming has been “arrogant” and “evil”—when you’ve thought that they rely on your own intelligence, influence or charm. Ask God to grow you in humility this year.
5. Do good
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them” (v 17). What good is God calling you to do this year? What person is he calling you to love? What sin does he want you to fight? What habits have you neglected? Ask God to show you what “good” living looks like each time you open the Bible this year—and ask his Spirit to help you do what you read.
What are you praying for in 2017? Join the conversation and comment below. You can also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our YouTube Channel, and download The Good Book Company App straight to your phone or tablet.
Rachel Jones is the author of A Brief Theology of Periods (Yes, really), Is This It?, and several books in the award-winning Five Things to Pray series, and serves as Vice President (Editorial) at The Good Book Company. She helps teach kids and serves on the mission core team at her church, King's Church Chessington, in Surrey, UK.
