A New Year’s Prayer for the United Methodist Church from UMC Prays of The Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Sunday, 1 January 2016

A New Year’s Prayer for the United Methodist Church from UMC Prays of The Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, United States for Sunday, 1 January 2016

SUNDAY, JANUARY 1, 2017
Editor’s Note: May this New Year be filled with God’s good blessings with daily experiences of grace and hope. Starting now and continuing for 18 months, our UMC Prayer Community will be supporting the Council of Bishops’ invitation and call to prayer:

• pray daily for our mission “to make disciples for the transformation of the world”
• pray regularly for the work of the Commission on the Way Forward
• participate intentionally in your annual or central conference’s “Week of Prayer”
• fast and pray weekly for our future as the United Methodist Church

To facilitate this prayer initiative, each Conference has committed to a “Week of Prayer,” a rolling time of prayer moving across our global connection. North Carolina Conference leads the way for us. See the Conference Prayer Schedule here.
Plus, as a member of the UMC Prayer Community, you will receive three posts per week from UMCPrays.org. The Sunday post will be a prayer or meditation from the resident bishop of the Conference leading our “Week of Prayer,” which will be followed by a midweek excerpt from A Disciple’s Journal featuring works of John and Charles Wesley, and a Friday post offering ideas for mission and service. We encourage you to invite others to join us in this prayer pilgrimage for the church.
Today’s Prayer from Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, resident bishop North Carolina Conference
Loving and luminous God, we rejoice in your gift of Jesus, the Child of Bethlehem.
We remember the manger and ask for humble hearts, gifts of the Holy Spirit.
We welcome Jesus, who is all compassion, pure unbounded love.
Use us, we pray, as you draw and welcome all people home to you, one by one.
We covenant in this new year to be gentle yet strong servants,
yielding all that we are and all that we have to you.
We are yours to be raised up or brought low, to be exalted or humbled,
to be honored or set aside, to do and even to suffer.
Fulfill your purpose, we pray, as our whole church moves into the future you give.
Use our prayers and efforts to beckon people into joyful discipleship.
We pray for the mission of the United Methodist Church, for every local church and ministry,
for the Council of Bishops and for the Commission on a Way Forward.
Surprise us with your dazzling light, your persevering goodness and your wisdom
as we pray together, converse with one another and embrace your way forward.
In the name of the Triune God, we offer this prayer. Amen.
Images and language drawn from the Wesley hymn, “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” and the Wesley Covenant Prayer.
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