(Thanksgiving) Rejoicing in God’s Providence over the past year, drawn from Isaiah 25:1: 
 
O Lord, You are my God; 

I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; 

For You have worked wonders, 

Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness. 

Heavenly Father: 

As we are gathered together today on this last Lord’s Day of 2024, we come to acclaim you as our God. You, who are the eternal and timeless one, are this day giving us the opportunity to reflect on our finiteness, how we are bound by time, and how you are eternally faithful and good. 

We thank you for 2024 as individuals and as families, Father. In this year, we have experienced so much. We have felt great sadnesses and also greatly rejoiced. We have seen loss, and known great gain. We have seen death, and exulted in birth. We have been afflicted by disease and confronted by death and enjoyed restored health. We have faced prospects of uncertainty and experienced stability that we had no ability to create for ourselves, and known conflict and comfort.  

We thank you for 2024 as a church, Father. Through your Gospel, we have rejoiced to see ministry and discipleship expand, we witnessed your provision for the procession of your kingdom work, and we have seen the wonder of spiritual new birth and entrance into your kingdom. We have also experienced the heavy responsibility of discipline and the sadness of loss from our fellowship, and have felt the unfulfilled longing for repentance and restoration. 

In all these things—experienced individually or corporately—Father, we are cast upon your grace and your good Providence as we rejoice in your sovereignty. You give and you take, you superintend over all, and no one can ward off your hand or say, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:35). In that which has been comfortable and convenient, as well as that which has been wearisome and mournful, you are good. Your wondrous purposes from before the foundation of the earth are worked out in perfect faithfulness, and we marvel in both sight and faith to see how you have woven the many threads of our experiences this year into the larger testimony that exalts your perfection, your goodness, and your grace in the salvation of souls, in our sanctification, and in our greater dependence on you. 

As we stand on the brink of a new year, Father, we rejoice that you are immutable. Your purposes continue to be wondrous and unchanging, formed long ago. In your purposes, we know that 2025 will see some measure of sadness, happiness, gain, loss, stability, uncertainty, conflict, and comfort, individually and corporately. We rejoice that in the year to come, we can be absolutely sure of your faithfulness, and we will be continually assured that you are our God, deserving of all thanksgiving and exaltation for your work in and among us. We praise you that in your nature, your revelation, and your mighty works, you have given us defense against presumption, against fear, and false hope in the year ahead.  

We thank you for the obedience of Christ that brings us to stand before you, in Him. We thank you for the privilege of worshiping and journeying together, as a church. You are our God, and worthy of all worship, obedience, and exaltation. May our recognition of your worthiness today exalt you as we look back on 2024, and may our responses to your greatness today set the stage for your worship in the year to come.  

This we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.