Each new year feels full of possibilities! Symbolically, it’s the fresh start that so many of us want in our lives.
Thanks be to God who gives us a fresh start each day! Lamentations 3:22-23 KJV tells us that “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.”
What a wonderful gift that is to us! As we start the new year, let’s be in prayer. God wants us to be talking to Him in prayer and trusting Him for the year ahead. These new year prayer points will help you pray through the month of January.
There are 31 prayer points, which means you can pray through one prayer request each day.
At the end of this post, there is a printable prayer planner for the month of January. It includes the list of prayer requests as well as the 5 additional prayer themes, and a prayer journaling page for each week. It is a free instant download.
If you are interested in praying through the other months of the year, check out this page to see which months have been covered on this site.
Let’s get started praying for the New Year!
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New Year Prayer Points: 31 Prayer Points for January
Some people are energized for a New Year, while others are tired after a busy season at the end of the year. Whatever your approach to the New Year is, the best way to handle it is with faithful prayer!
Some churches will have New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day services that include prayer or midnight prayers. If your church doesn’t have one, or you can’t find one nearby, pray by yourself or with others to start off the New Year right.
These prayer points for January are here to help you pray through a variety of prayer needs in the coming year that you might not cover otherwise.
These New Year prayer points are here to encourage you
- For joy in the New Year
- For people with birthdays in January
- For perseverance in God-honoring goals
- For marriages to be strengthened
- For good financial habits in the new year
- For strength to make healthy choices
- For genuine connections with other people
- For family members to show kindness to one another
- For God to remind you of your calling
- For God to grow your patience with others
- For strength to persevere in good deeds and choices
- To trust God and remember that He is in control
- For God’s grace and mercy during trials
- For compassion for those you don’t agree with
- For the prodigal believer to return to the Lord
- For positive experiences for those who have had trouble trusting people
- For people who don’t know where to start to get the help they need
- For strength for family members who serve as caregivers
- For those who are in pain but don’t have a diagnosis
- For people who don’t have family nearby, that they will have a sense of family with friends and church family
- For teachers to have many people praying for them
- For friends to encourage one another
- For willingness to surrender a situation to God where you think you can’t forgive someone
- For discernment about people who will lead you away from God
- For young people to be protected from those who would mislead them
- For Christian ministries who help children
- For Christians to be praying beyond their own borders
- For churches to pray about new ministries God has called them to
- For ministries that spread the Good News of Jesus Christ
- For missionaries who are missing friends and family
- For Christians to be encouraged in prayer
Happy New Year Prayer
Dear Lord,
We are thankful for the start of a new year. It feels like a fresh start, but we are even more thankful for the new mercies You give us every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!
We pray that You will help us to trust You with the new things that lay ahead for us in the New Year. We believe that You will not let anything come into our lives that You will not work together for our good, because we love You.
May we be faithful in times of abundance as well as difficult times.
We love You!
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
5 Themes for New Year Prayer Points
These 5 themes have been chosen specifically for January, as many people take time during the first of the year to make goals in the major areas of their lives. They may also struggle financially after a difficult holiday season.
Many of these themes will also fit in well throughout the rest of the year.
Use the feeling of the fresh start of the year to renew your commitment to pray for these areas in your life. May God bless us with new beginnings in these areas of our lives!
Guidance for Our Church’s Mission
One of the best ways to serve your church is to be faithful in prayer for your church! We are meant to be in fellowship with one another.
Though we are flawed human beings, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to work together to serve the Lord. Praying for our church, that we will serve God in the ways He has designed us to serve, is a great privilege.
Prayer Points for Guidance for Our Church’s Mission
Pray that we will serve the Lord together effectively. “For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don’t have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.” Romans 12:4-5
Pray that we will be united in Christ. “For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12
Pray that we will serve God in the way He has called us. “He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:11-13
Pray that we will not be held back by the past in regret or unforgiveness, but will serve God today. “Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14
Pray that we will constantly seek the Lord’s guidance. “Guide me in your truth, and teach me, For you are the God of my salvation, I wait for you all day long.” Psalm 25:5
Prayer for Guidance for Our Church’s Mission
Dear God,
You know our church. Thank You for bringing all of us together as a church family to serve You.
We pray that we would be unified in You. Help us to refine the gifts that You have given us, and not be jealous of another’s gifts. We are thankful for the ways You have called us to serve You.
Please help us to surrender our will for the church and seek Yours always! You are our wonderful and perfect God.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Hope for Those Facing Financial Struggles
While news stories may suggest that January is one of the saddest months, it isn’t true. Still, some people may be stressed from debt that accumulated over the past year, while also not meeting the expectations of where they expected to be financially in the new year.
When we only focus on what we can do and we can see, it can be easy to be discouraged about our finances. But when we take time to pray to the Lord, and surrender our finances, our wants and needs, and our priorities to Him, we can find peace in our struggles.
We may not find instant relief or better circumstances, but the Lord can change our attitudes and our hearts. We also get the opportunity to see how He will provide the good things He wants us to have.
Prayer Points for Financial Struggles
Pray to have perspective on God’s ownership. “For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.” Psalm 50:10-11
Ask God to help you be content. “Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it.” Philippians 4:11
Pray for a heart that seeks God’s priorities first. “But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore don’t be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day’s own evil is sufficient.” Matthew 6:33-34
Pray for righteousness and contentment. “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6
Ask God to help you be thankful for His gifts. “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
Prayer for Relief from Financial Struggles
O Lord,
We come again, before You, to give over our financial needs to You. We surrender what we want, and ask for what You want.
You know our concerns and our worries. We pray that You would give us peace and contentment as we trust You with what lies ahead.
Help us to be thankful and to see that all good things come from You!
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Strength and Guidance for Leaders
Whether you are a leader in your church, in your family, with your friends, or at work, it can be a great responsibility. We need to be in prayer as leaders, and pray for the leaders in our lives.
A godly leader who carefully and thoughtfully provides guidance to others is a blessing. Pray these verses from the Word of God.
Prayer Points for Strength and Guidance for Leaders
Pray for leaders to look to the Lord to make the right decisions. “Show me your ways, LORD. Teach me your paths.” Psalm 25:4 WEBBE
Pray for leaders to value the word of the Lord and follow it. “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105
Ask God to strengthen leaders in Him. “Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.” Ephesians 6:10
Pray that leaders would find strength in God’s grace. “You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timothy 2:1
Pray for leaders to make their plans with God’s guidance. “A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9 WEBBE
Prayer for Strength and Guidance for Leaders
O God,
We want to lift up our leaders in prayer. You know what they need today. We pray that You would strengthen each one of them, and help them to rest in You.
We also want to pray for the areas where we lead others ourselves. We pray that we would be faithful to what You want us to do. Help us to stay in Your Word and to seek You always.
May You be glorified in our leadership!
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Peace in the Midst of Anxiety
Have you entered the New Year disappointed about the many worries that followed you from last year? It can make a person weary to carry around the burdens and troubles of life. Thankfully, we are not on our own!
The Lord sees us and cares about us. He may change our circumstances, but He often uses these difficult times to draw us closer to Him and give us His peace instead of the cheap imitation of it that the world offers us.
Use these prayer points from Scripture to pray for God’s peace.
Prayer Points for Peace in the Midst of Anxiety
Pray for peace in the knowledge that Jesus is with you. “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20b
Ask God for steadfastness as you serve Him, even when times are tough. “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” I Corinthians 15:58
Pray to trust God to lead you into triumph. “Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place.” 2 Corinthians 2:14
Ask God to keep your thoughts on His truth and not the lies of this world. “Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8
Pray for grace and peace as you wrestle with questions from others and even yourself. “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.” Colossians 4:6
Prayer for Peace in the Midst of Anxiety
Gracious Heavenly Father,
We come to you today with our burdens and cares, and cast them to You. (1 Peter 5:7) We are so grateful that we can trust what is happening in our lives to You.
We ask for Your peace today, that we will carry it with us. May we know Your presence today and find comfort and strength in You!
Please strengthen our hearts and minds today in You.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Strengthening Marriages and Families
In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV, we read “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” While this is directed at the church, it is just as important that this be followed in marriages and families.
Family relationships that are encouraging and edifying create safe places where one can work out their faith in Christ. Praying for families to be strong in the Lord and each other can be a blessing to not only them, but those they interact with.
Pray for families and marriages to be strengthened.
Prayer Points for Strengthening Marriages and Families
Pray for families to teach God’s Word in everyday life. “These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:6-7
Pray that a husband would love his wife, and a wife respect her husband. “Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Ephesians 5:33
Ask God to protect children and thwart anyone who would cause them to stumble. “Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if a huge millstone were hung around his neck and that he were sunk in the depths of the sea.” Matthew 18:5-6
Pray for marriages to be strong together. “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.” Ecclesiastes 4:9
Ask God to help families to be kind and forgiving with each other. “And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
Prayer for Strengthening Marriages and Families
Almighty Father,
We are thankful for the relationships you have given us in our families. We pray that You would strengthen all of them in You.
Draw closer those who don’t believe in You yet. Strengthen the faith of the believers and help them to shine Your light in our families.
We pray that You would help us to serve You together. May we be kind and loving to one another and treat each other in a way that honors You.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Free Printable Prayer Planner for January
This printable prayer planner with list of prayer points includes:
- A list of 31 prayers for January
- Prayer Points for Guidance for Our Church’s Mission
- Prayer Points for Hope for Those Facing Financial Struggles
- Prayer Points for Strength and Guidance for Leaders
- Prayer Points for Peace in the Midst of Anxiety
- Prayer Points for Strengthening Marriages and Families
- Plus a Printable Prayer Journal sheet following each prayer points sheet.
Download this printable prayer planner for January here.
Find the other months we’ve covered here.
If you’d like the yearly planner of these months compiled into one .pdf document, consider purchasing it here.
As we approach the beginning of this year, let’s seek God’s will, God’s wisdom, and God’s blessings through prayer!
May this month of January be a great start to the new year, and may you be blessed in the year ahead. Make prayer an important part of your year!
If you enjoyed this blog post, you may like Bible Verses for New Year’s Resolutions and the Monthly Prayer Points series.
While you are thinking about January, you might be interested in reading the Bible in one year.
You can read this post over on our sister site, Church Ministry Help, about printable read the Bible in a year plans. Or, you can pick up one of the several Bibles segmented into daily readings so that you read the whole Bible in one year, or just the New Testament.
May our almighty God encourage you in this start of the New Year!
