A short New Year prayer
Lord, thank You for bringing me to the start of a new year. I give You 2027: every day of it, every plan and every worry. Go ahead of me, walk beside me, and keep me close to You. Whatever this year holds, help me hold on to You. Amen.
“The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
A New Year blessing to send to someone
May God bless you in 2027. May He give you peace on the hard days, joy on the good ones, and a sense of His nearness on all of them. May you know you are loved, by Him and by me. Happy New Year.
“The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.”
A New Year's Eve prayer (looking back with thanks)
Before you look ahead, look back. After God helped Israel against the Philistines, Samuel set up a stone, named it Ebenezer and said, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12, KJV). New Year's Eve is a good night to do the same: to name the ways God helped you this year, including some you can only see now.
Many churches hold a Watch Night service on New Year's Eve, a time of prayer and worship that sometimes ends at midnight. Methodists have kept the custom since John Wesley's day: he held a Watch Night service of covenant renewal in 1755, and over the years the service settled on New Year's Eve. In many African American churches, Watch Night also remembers December 31, 1862, when enslaved and free African Americans gathered to pray and wait for the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863.
A New Year's Eve prayer of thanks
Faithful God, this year is almost over, and before it ends I want to say thank You. Thank You for the days that went well, and for the strength You gave on the days that did not. Thank You for the people who loved me this year, for the prayers You answered, and for the ones You answered in ways I did not expect. Forgive me for the times I went my own way, for the words I wish I could take back, and for the good I left undone. I let go of what I cannot change. You have helped me all the way to tonight, and I trust You with every day ahead. Amen.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits”
A New Year prayer for my family
Pray this at the first family meal of the year, or pray it on your own and add each person's name. The verse under it comes from Joshua, who said it to all Israel, choosing the Lord for his whole household. For more prayers for the people you love, see our prayers for family.
A New Year prayer for my family
Lord, thank You for my family, for each person by name, and for every way You cared for us this past year. As we begin 2027, bless our home. Give us health, and give us grace when health fails. Give us patience with each other on ordinary weekdays, not only on holidays. Protect our children, strengthen the marriages in our family, and comfort our parents as they grow older. Draw back to You anyone in our family who has drifted. Teach us to forgive quickly and to laugh often. Make our home a place where You are welcome, and where others feel welcome too. Amen.
“as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
A prayer for new beginnings
Maybe 2026 ended with a loss, a mistake, a diagnosis or a door that closed. A new year does not erase any of that, and you do not need to pretend it does. But Scripture does promise new beginnings, and they rest on God's faithfulness, not on the calendar.
“Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
“It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
The words from Lamentations come from a book of grief over a ruined Jerusalem, and still the writer could say that God's mercies are new every morning. The deepest new start the Bible describes is not a resolution but a person: anyone who is “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV) is made new. If this year held a death, our prayers for grief may help with the first holidays and the months after.
A prayer for new beginnings
God of new mornings, I come to You at the start of this year carrying things I wish I could leave behind: mistakes I made, things that were done to me, plans that fell apart. You say You are doing a new thing. I want to see it. Make a way where I cannot see one. Give me a clean heart, the courage to start again, and the humility to start small. When I fail again, and I will, remind me that Your mercies are new every morning, not only every January. I am Yours. Lead me into this year. Amen.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
New Year Bible verses
Eight verses to read on New Year's Day, copy into a journal, or keep on your phone for the year ahead.
- Psalm 65:11 “Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.”
- Deuteronomy 11:12 “the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”
- Psalm 90:12 “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
- Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
- Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
- Philippians 3:13-14 “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
- Psalm 118:24 “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
- Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”
All eight verses are from the King James Version (KJV).
Two of these need a word of context. In Deuteronomy 11:12, Moses is speaking of the land God was giving Israel, but it is a fair picture of God's steady care from the first day of a year to the last. And Jeremiah 29:11 was first sent in a letter to exiles in Babylon, who were told they would wait seventy years to go home (Jeremiah 29:10). It is not a promise that 2027 will be easy. It is a promise that God's purposes for His people are good, even through a long wait.
Start the year with a few minutes in the Bible each day
If you want 2027 to be the year you read the Bible regularly, start small. One chapter a day is enough to read all four Gospels, 89 chapters in all, by the end of March. Our Bible reading plan for 2027 starts with John, one chapter a day, and our guide to keeping a daily devotional shows how to fit Scripture and prayer into about ten minutes.
In Faithero, each day brings a verse in the morning and a chapter at night, from John, Mark, the Psalms or Romans, and saying Amen to the day's verse keeps your streak going. If you miss a day, start again the next morning. There is nothing to catch up on.
Five questions to pray through on New Year's Eve
What am I thankful for?
Write down ten things from 2026, large and small, and thank God for each one by name.
What do I need to confess?
Ask God to show you where you went your own way this year. Name it plainly, and receive His forgiveness: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:9, KJV).
Who do I need to forgive, or thank?
Think of one person you are holding something against and one person who helped you. Pray for both. If you can, thank the second one this week.
What do I hope for in 2027?
Bring your hopes to God honestly, and hold them with an open hand, as James teaches: "If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that" (James 4:15, KJV).
What is one habit to ask God to help with?
Choose one small thing: a chapter a day, a prayer before bed, a weekly call to someone lonely. A small habit you keep will do more than a big one you drop by February.
Frequently asked
What is a good short prayer for the New Year?
Something like this: "Lord, thank You for bringing me to a new year. I give You every day of 2027, every plan and every worry. Go ahead of me, walk beside me, and keep me close to You. Amen." A short prayer you can remember will serve you better than a long one you read once.
What does the Bible say about new beginnings?
That they rest on God's faithfulness, not on a date. His mercies "are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:23, KJV). Through Isaiah, God says, "Behold, I will do a new thing" (Isaiah 43:19, KJV). And Paul writes that anyone in Christ "is a new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV). A new year is a good time to remember these promises, but they are true on any day.
What is a Watch Night service?
A service of prayer and worship on New Year's Eve, sometimes ending at midnight so the church enters the new year in prayer. Methodists have kept the custom since John Wesley's day: he held a Watch Night service of covenant renewal in 1755. In many African American churches, Watch Night also remembers December 31, 1862, when people gathered to pray and wait for the Emancipation Proclamation to take effect on January 1, 1863.
Should Christians make New Year's resolutions?
Many do, and nothing in the Bible forbids it. Planning is wise: "Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established" (Proverbs 16:3, KJV). Just plan humbly, knowing every day is in God's hands (James 4:13-15). Resolutions work best as prayers: ask God for help with one or two specific things, and expect grace when you stumble.
The same God on both sides of midnight
Midnight on December 31 can feel like a line between two lives: the old year with its regrets and the new one with its hopes. But God does not change at midnight. Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses, says to Him, “from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Psalm 90:2, KJV), and the same psalm asks Him to teach us to number our days.
So you do not have to get everything right in January. The God who carried you through 2026 will meet you in 2027, on the good days and the hard ones. Start with a short prayer, and keep coming back. For the mornings ahead, our morning prayers are a simple place to begin.
A short New Year prayer
For the first minutes of January 1, the first page of a new journal, or a message to a friend. The second one is a blessing you can send to someone you love.