A Prayer for Success in The New Year

Last updated on: December 31, 2021 at 6:01 pm by Brad Roth

A Prayer for Success in The New Year 2021-12-30T11:12:55-05:00 Brad Roth

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Psalm 20:4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

Happy New Year! May God grant you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed in this latest flip of the calendar.

But which desires and which plans? We make little plans every day that are of little consequence—or at least, seemingly so. Like: I suppose God doesn’t care so much for what sort of peanut butter we add to the shopping list (though no doubt he prefers all-natural chunky). Yet if God leaves it to us to sort out the footnotes, then surely the great hinge moments of our lives matter to him. Who we marry and what we do come to mind—the heartthrob and the good job. There we ask for God’s blessing, knowing at some level that whatever God blesses, he also wants to have a say in. But what of matters in between, like whether to take a trip or refinance the house or buy that ice cream maker with the built in compressor?

Maybe the question gets down to this: What’s mine and what’s God’s? We ask this of money, which is really amounts to the same thing, because money is in essence a technology for storing the power to effect our plans. We can do stuff and buy stuff and make stuff happen through money—not just money, to be sure, but money often functions as an approximation for influence. With money, the biblical answer is clear: It’s all God’s. Everything that we have belongs to God. As the psalms put it: To God belong “the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10).

What’s more, Psalm 20, like its pair, Psalm 21, is a royal song for victory. The psalms are ascribed to David, and both pray to God for success in battle—and assume God’s response (20:6; 21:2). Which is to say that they’re not psalms for unspecified people seeking open-ended success. They’re psalms originally aimed at the king of God’s covenant people. They’re words for those who already belong to God, seek God, worship God—those who commit their lives and affairs to God. They assume the give and take of walking “before the Lord in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:9).

All of which is to say that the line between what matters to God and what does not is artificial. It all matters: what we do and say, work and play. Teach us Lord to number our days (Psalm 90:12). Everything matters not in a this-will-be-on-the-test sort of way, but in that as much as we live and move and have our being in him, our lives—and thus our plans—are drawn to Christ. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). In our little ways, we begin to have the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). From the renewing of our minds, we discern something of God’s will in all things (Romans 12:2).

In the grace of Christ we can pray the words of Psalm 20:4 with the ebullient confidence of David. May God give me the desire of my heart! May God make all my plans succeed! We ask in confidence because we believe God has shaped our desires and plans to this moment, and we humbly trust that God crafts our future in ways that coincide with the longings of our heart—and his.

May God’s favor rest upon all you do in 2022!

Previous Post

December 18, 2021

The Lord Be with You

Next Post

January 6, 2022 Become your best self! (Not really.)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month January 2023 November 2022 May 2022 April 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What day did God rest during creation?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The third day The seventh day The first day The sixth day

Books by This Author Books by Brad Roth

See All Titles »