Almighty and Gracious God, you are a God of new beginnings

Almighty and Gracious God, you are a God of new beginnings. We thank you that at the start of a new year that you are at work in us, your church and the world, bringing new life out of death, hope out of despair, wholeness out of brokenness.

We are grateful for how relentlessly loving you are, and how your will to remake all creation will not be denied. But we confess that we have resisted your will. We cling to old wounds and regrets, and use them as excuses for denying your love its place in our heart.

We believe we are defined by a broken past rather than by the new…