Morning by Morning, January 1 - Your New Years Blessing
Good morning, Lord Jesus. On this first day of the year, I make You the first priority of my life. May everything else be centered in and flow out from my personal relationship with You. Help me start my spiritual journey of this year in the communion of prayer -- embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit. ...
"Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers" (3 John 1:2 NKJV).
Father God, I believe it is Your will for Your children to prosper and to flourish. And I believe it's by the measure that our soul prospers and flourishes that everything else in our life prospers and flourishes. As Your Holy Spirit wrote those words to express this spiritual principle of life through John, he found he had "no greater joy" than to know his children in the faith were walking in the truth, that their souls were prospering and their lives were flourishing (3 John 1:4).
The heart of blessing to prosper and to flourish is an expression of Your Father heart of God toward us as Your children: "The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God" (Psalm 92:12). Your heart and Your will is that Your children prosper and flourish, to "produce fruit" throughout all the ages and seasons of our lives, "always green and full of sap," passionately vibrant, fully alive, and faithfully true.
And with Your Father heart, filling me with Your Holy Spirit, in the mighty name of Jesus, I feel led to pray and speak a New Years Blessing for all my friends who join with me on this daily journey of prayer:
My Friend, may you prosper in all things and be in good health just as your soul prospers. May you prosper and flourish, producing good fruit, always green and full of sap throughout this year and season of your life. May you be passionately vibrant, fully alive, and faithfully true. May you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, that all these things that are in your Father's good heart to give you may be added unto you (Matthew 6:33).
May you awaken every morning to the tender mercies and steadfast love of the Lord our God that never ceases and never comes to an end in His faithfulness for you (Lamentations 3:22-23). May you know and experience the unshakeable, unchangeable, unbreakable embrace of your Father's arms around you, with the fullness of His provision and protection, as He reveals and affirms the fullness of your identity and destiny as a child of God (Luke 15:20). May you hunger and thirst for righteousness as You grow in Your hunger and thirst for a deeper intensity and intimacy in Your personal relationship with Jesus, as Savior and Lord of every dimension of your life (Matthew 5:6). May you be filled afresh and overflowing with the Holy Spirit every day, as you keep surrendering your life and entrusting your heart to the One who fills your life with the righteousness and peace and joy of the fullness of the kingdom of God (Romans 14:17).
May the mighty right hand of the Lord be lifted high over every moment of your life and every encounter you face, with His power and love to uphold you and encourage you and empower you, as He does mighty things for you (Psalm 118:16). May the hand of the favor of God be upon you and go before you, to bless you and prosper you, as you flourish and thrive with the fruit of His righteousness for the glory of His kingdom (Proverbs 3:3). May the Lord give you the desires of your heart, as you humbly, trustingly delight in Him and allow Him to fashion His desires in your heart (Psalm 37:4). May you pray more boldly in faith, not doubting in your heart, but centered in Christ, to receive what you ask in the name of Jesus (Mark 11:23). And my the power of your words, flowing from the heart of the Father, speak spirit and life everywhere He sends you in the authority of His name (Ezekiel 37:10; 1 Peter 4:11; Mark 11:23).
May you deeply abide in Christ, as He deeply abides in you, bearing much fruit as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ (John 15:4). May you know and embrace the truths of God and be set free from everything that would hold you back from being all your Father created you to be (John 8:36). May you make it your aim to please God in all you do, doing all things to the glory of God, with a heart filled with joyful obedience in a life of praise (2 Corinthians 5:9). And may your joy be made full and complete, as you sense the pleasure and joy of the One who created you for joy (John 15:11).
May the holy angels of the Lord lift you up into His presence and surround you with His protection and war for you in the heavenly realms with His victory (Psalm 91:11). May the Lord stretch out your stakes and enlarge the site of your tent, with the wisdom and authority to prevail and prosper in all He has entrusted to you (Isaiah 54:2). May He bless you and increase your territory, with His hand upon you to protect and empower you, to express His heart and power and love and grace through you to the glory of His name (1 Chronicles 4:10). And may He give you as a possession of your inheritance every place where the soles of your feet may touch and where the prayers of your heart may reach, to the full measure of His plans and purpose for your life and through your life (Joshua 1:3).
May you hear the voice of God more clearly with more certainty than ever before (John 10:3). May you be renewed and restored in your journey with God to walk with Him and talk with Him in the coolness of the day and the intimacy of His garden in the depths of your spirit as deep calls unto deep (Genesis 3:8). May you be led by the Spirit of God as a beloved child of God (Romans 8:14). May you know the fullness of joy in the presence of God (Psalm 16:11). And may you know that you are not created and called to be merely an obedient servant of God, but a beloved child of God and a faithful friend of God (John 15:15).
May you prepare the way of the Lord in your heart and allow your words and your prayers and your life to help prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of others (Mark 1:3). May you be sanctified in spirit and soul and body, sound and blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, wholly surrendered and wholly committed to the Lord your God (1 Thessalonians 5:23). May you be conformed into the image of Christ, free to be like Jesus, to allow Him to display His glory through your life (Romans 8:29). May you be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know and embrace and live into the perfect will of God for your life (Romans 12:2). And may you be changed into the very image of God, from glory to glory, as you seek Him and behold Him and give yourself fully to Him, without reservation or hesitation (2 Corinthians 3:18).
May you be continually baptized with the Holy Spirit and the holy fire of the living God, set ablaze with a passion for Jesus and burning with unquenchable zeal to see God's kingdom come and His will be done here on earth, and here in your heart, as it is in heaven (Acts 1:5). May the anointing and power of the abiding presence of God be upon you and within you always (1 John 2:27). May you be one the Lord uses to turn this world upside down with the glory of God! (Acts 17:6) And when it's all be said and done, may you hear the words of your Father spoking into your spirit, "Well done, My good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord!" (Matthew 25:21)
Now, my Friend, by the power and the grace of God: "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace!" (Numbers 6:24-26) Happy New Year! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
