Lord, let us begin again...
A prayer for this first Sunday of 2026
Lord, let us turn our eyes again to face the arrival of another year.
Guide us and guard us as we move toward You on this first Sunday of 2026.
May the hearts of Your people be united in You as we arrive for gathered worship this day.
Be with all those stepping back into places of worship to begin this year.
Bless those who are seeking a new beginning with the courage to turn toward You. Strengthen those who even now are debating whether or not the attempt to start again is even worth it.
Let this first Sunday of the year be a moment marked for restoration and reconciliation.
Be with the folks resolving to try to establish faithful rhythms of worship. Let this day begin a renewed season of attention and commitment to spiritual things.
Bless those who come awkward with the weight of long absence. Welcome again those who knew You as children but whom life and years have led away. Let their hearts be lifted up in the words of Scripture, the sounds of praise, and the communion of prayer.
Watch over those who come in fear of rejection today. Bless those who feel themselves outcasts and outsiders in every room they enter. May they find a gracious welcome and the refuge they seek here among Your people today.
Focus those who enter with distractions without and doubts within. With calendars and schedules and school fundraisers and work evaluations and a thousand other notifications flashing across their minds, let their desire to come be met with a calmness of heart and consecration of spirit today. Lift their view upward as they come longing to disconnect and find peace and Your Presence here.
Lord, give us the grace to welcome all who come eager, all who come scared, all who come lonely, all who come not knowing why.
Be with those of us who were here last week, the week before, and all the weeks before that.
Save us from the dullness of routine that can numb us to the rhythms of grace.
Banish any self-righteousness from our spirits today.
Give us hearts of welcome. Let us remember we are the latest links in a chain of faithful witnesses stretching back through the story of Your people. Grant us also a sense of wonder as we recognize that what we are doing today is a foretaste of glory. Help us to remember that Your love is only magnified and increased when it is freely given away.
Remind us there is always enough here to satisfy all who come willing to receive.
Let us see in every new face a cause for hope and a reason for celebration.
Give us hearts that join in the joy You feel with the restoration of all who are wayward and weary. Open us to see we have a part to play in this party of welcome too.
May our hands move to heal the very wounds people claiming Your authority have inflicted. Help us to walk alongside the scared and the scarred in this process of return and repairing of trust.
May we reach out to help to bear the long-carried burdens of regret and sorrow and shame arriving on the shoulders of our neighbors this day.
May all we think and say and do declare that this is a day of good news when the lost are found, the dead raised, and bonds of kinship remembered and renewed.
Lord, we cannot know all this year will bring. We do not even know what this day holds, but let us rise and go forward in hopeful expectation.
May we go among Your people today with songs of deliverance in our hearts and on our lips.
May we see the face of Christ in our brothers and sisters today.
May we embrace the words of Scripture and the intercession of the Spirit.
May we enter the community of the church this day knowing that this year is committed and consecrated to Your glory.
May You be near to us in all we undertake today, tomorrow, and throughout the coming year.
In fellowship with the Spirit and through the sacrifice of Jesus, our Lord, we pray, amen.
Thank you and amen.