Today is the first Sunday of a new year, and it’s always a strange moment. The calendar changes, the pace slows just enough for us to notice, and we realize again how quickly time moves. Another year has closed. Another one has begun.
2025 was not without its difficulties, but it also carried many good gifts—moments of growth, progress, restoration, and grace. We step into 2026 in a world that still feels uncertain and unfinished, yet filled with new opportunities and fresh mercies. And here at Hoover, we begin this year with genuine gratitude. We’re thankful for the ways God has been at work among us, encouraged by the unity of our church family, and hopeful as we prepare to welcome a new Youth Minister into our life together next month.
In the years ahead, what will you remember about 2025?
Political tension that still shapes much of our public life. Rising costs that affect families in real and daily ways. Rapid change in technology, culture, and expectations. A sense that the world is moving fast, and not always in the direction we might choose.
As we begin 2026, this is a good time not only to think about what we hope for, but to consider carefully how we should pray. The passing of a year has a way of reminding us that much of life is beyond our control, and that our truest stability doesn’t come from circumstances at all.
So we pray.
- We pray for wisdom: for those who lead, for those who serve, for those who teach, and for ourselves . . . that we would make good decisions, speak with grace, and walk faithfully before our God.
- We pray that God will continue shaping us through whatever this year brings, teach-ing us patience, deepening our trust, strengthening our character, and sharpening our love for one another.
- We pray for peace in a divided world, and for the quiet work of Christ to heal what is broken, soften what is hardened, and steady what is afraid, beginning with us.
- We pray for those whose faith feels tired, whose joy has grown thin, or whose hope needs fresh breath.
- We pray that the church will be what God intends it to be—not perfect, but faithful; not driven by fear, but marked by love and steady obedience.
- We pray for those entering this year with burdens: illness, grief, financial pressure, loneliness, unanswered questions, or private struggles known only to God.
- And above all, we pray that in 2026 God will be glorified in us: that our lives will re-flect the goodness of Christ, that doors will open for the gospel, and that many will come to know the hope that only he can give.
We don’t know what this year will hold. But we begin it with steady confidence in the One who does. And because our future rests in his hands, we step into 2026 not with anxiety, but with a quiet and patient hope. —Chuck
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