Prayer points with Scriptures · 23 points
Prayer Points for the End of the Year
These prayer points for the end of the year are for the last month of the year, when it is time to look back before looking ahead: a December prayer meeting, a church’s final service of the year, a family evening or a quiet hour on your own. They give thanks for the year, remember God’s faithfulness, confess sin and let go of old hurts, ask for grace to finish well, pray for our families and church, and entrust the coming year to God.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds—
Psalm 103:2 (BSB)
Take a section or two each Sunday in December, or set aside one evening near the end of the month and pray them all with your calendar or this year’s photos open beside you, naming specific moments. For the year ahead in more detail, pair this page with our New Year prayer points on December 31.
Thanksgiving for the year
1Wonders too many to count
LORD my God, many are the wonders You have done this year, more than I can count. Bring them to mind as I look back over the months: the prayers You answered, the help that came just in time, the mercies I barely noticed.
Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
Psalm 40:5 (BSB)2Recounting what You have done
LORD, I will give thanks to You with all my heart and recount all Your wonders. Help me tell the story of this year honestly, with Your goodness at the center of it, and let me be glad and rejoice in You.
For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Death of the Son.” A Psalm of David. I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart; I will recount all Your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
Psalm 9:1-2 (BSB)3Faithful morning and night
Most High God, it is good to praise You, to proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning and Your faithfulness at night. Through every morning and every night of this year You have been faithful, and we thank You.
A Psalm. A song for the Sabbath day. It is good to praise the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High, to proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning and Your faithfulness at night
Psalm 92:1-2 (BSB)4What can we give back?
LORD, how can I repay You for all Your goodness to me this year? Grace cannot be repaid, only received with thanks. Let my answer be a grateful heart, a life given back to You, and generosity toward others before the year is out.
How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me?
Psalm 116:12 (BSB) · Pray this verse →
Remembering God’s faithfulness
5How You led us all the way
LORD our God, You told Israel to remember how You led them all the way through the wilderness. Help us remember how You led us this year. Show us what the hard stretches revealed in our hearts, and what You were teaching us.
Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.
Deuteronomy 8:2 (BSB)6Not one good promise has failed
LORD, at the end of his life Joshua could tell Israel that not one of Your good promises had failed. Looking back on this year, we say it too: You kept Your word to us, even when Your answers were not the ones we asked for.
Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and soul that not one of the good promises the LORD your God made to you has failed. Everything was fulfilled for you; not one promise has failed.
Joshua 23:14 (BSB)7Remembering You after a hard year
Lord, if this year has been hard, help me do what the psalmist did: remember Your works, reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds. Let the memory of Your past faithfulness steady me now.
I will remember the works of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds.
Psalm 77:11-12 (BSB)8Faithful when we were not
Lord Jesus, there were days this year when we were faithless, yet You remained faithful, for You cannot deny Yourself. Thank You that our year with You rested on Your faithfulness, not on ours.
if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
2 Timothy 2:13 (BSB)
Repentance, forgiveness and letting go
9Confessing this year’s sins
LORD, I acknowledge my sin to You and will not hide it: the words I regret, the people I neglected, the habits I excused. I confess my transgressions to You, and I thank You that You forgive the guilt of my sin.
Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not hide my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah
Psalm 32:5 (BSB)10Sins cast into the depths of the sea
God of compassion, You cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Do not let us carry this year’s guilt into the next one. What You have forgiven, help us stop dredging up.
He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:19 (BSB)11Forgiving before the year ends
Father, You tell us that when we stand to pray, we should forgive anyone we hold something against. Before this year ends, show me whom I need to forgive, and help me release the debt, even if they never apologize.
And when you stand to pray, if you hold anything against another, forgive it, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses as well.”
Mark 11:25 (BSB)12No root of bitterness
God, do not let a root of bitterness grow in us from the hurts of this year. Where disappointment with people, with church or even with You has taken hold, pull it out by Your grace before it spreads.
See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.
Hebrews 12:15 (BSB)13Healing for this year’s wounds
LORD, You heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. We bring You this year’s losses: the people who died, the plans that fell apart, the friendships that ended. Bind up what is still raw, in Your time.
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
Psalm 147:3 (BSB) · Pray this verse →
Finishing well
14Keeping the faith to the finish
Lord, I want to reach the end of this year, and one day the end of my life, able to say with Paul: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Keep me trusting You to the finish.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:7 (BSB)15The work You gave us to do
Father, Jesus glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Him to do. Help us finish the tasks You have given us this year, and let go of the ones that were never ours to carry.
I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do.
John 17:4 (BSB)16Not weary in doing good
Lord, we are tired as the year ends. Keep us from growing weary in doing good: in parenting, caregiving, serving and praying for people who have not changed. Help us not give up, trusting the harvest to Your timing.
Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9 (BSB) · Pray this verse →17An end better than the beginning
God, the end of a matter is better than its beginning, and a patient spirit is better than a proud one. Give us patience in these last weeks of the year, and let us end it humbler and wiser than we began.
The end of a matter is better than the beginning, and a patient spirit is better than a proud one.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 (BSB)
Our families and our church
18Telling our children what God did
LORD, Israel set up stones from the Jordan so that their children would ask what they meant and hear what You had done. Help our families tell the stories of this year: answered prayers, hard seasons You carried us through, Your faithfulness.
to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ you are to tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will be a memorial to the Israelites forever.”
Joshua 4:6-7 (BSB)19Thanks for growing faith and love
God, we thank You for our church family, for faith that has grown and love for one another that has increased this year. Thank You for the people who served quietly, prayed faithfully and welcomed newcomers.
We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 (BSB)20Love that abounds more and more
Father, this is our prayer for our church: that our love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that we may discern what is best and be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11 (BSB)
Entrusting the new year to God
21Our plans, Your steps
LORD, we are already making plans for next year. Our hearts plan our course, but You determine our steps. We hand You the calendar before we fill it, and trust You with the steps we cannot yet see.
A man’s heart plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
Proverbs 16:9 (BSB)22Our times are in Your hands
LORD, I trust in You; You are my God. My times are in Your hands: the days of this year that are ending and the days of the year to come. Whatever next year holds, I will rest in Your hands.
But I trust in You, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.
Psalm 31:14-15 (BSB) · Pray this verse →23Carried year after year
God, You promised Your people that even to old age and gray hair You would carry and sustain them. Another year has passed. Thank You for carrying us through this one, and we trust You to carry us into the next.
Even to your old age, I will be the same, and I will bear you up when you turn gray. I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.
Isaiah 46:4 (BSB) · Pray this verse →
A closing prayer
Lord God, before this year closes we bless Your name and remember all Your kind deeds. Thank You for every mercy, seen and unseen. Forgive our sins, heal our wounds and help us release every grudge. Give us grace to finish well, bless our families and our church, and take the year ahead into Your hands, for our times are in Your hands and we trust You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Pray with a voice
Short prayers with a voice to pray along with, each drawn from one passage.
Questions
How do you pray at the end of the year?
Look back before you look ahead. Thank God for specific mercies, confess what went wrong, forgive those who hurt you and bring Him your losses, then commit the coming year to Him. Many people go through their calendar or phone photos month by month to remember. Psalm 103:2 sets the tone: “do not forget all His kind deeds.”
How is this different from New Year prayer points?
These prayer points look back over the year that is ending: thanksgiving, remembrance, repentance, forgiveness and finishing well, with only a short section about the year ahead. Our New Year prayer points look forward, with petitions for the coming year, fasting, and prayers for a watch-night service. You can pray this page in December and the other on December 31 and January 1.
What Bible verses are good for the end of the year?
Psalm 103:1-5, Psalm 90, Psalm 40:5, Deuteronomy 8:2, Joshua 23:14, Lamentations 3:22-23, 2 Timothy 4:7 and Proverbs 16:9 all fit the close of a year. Psalm 90, headed “A prayer of Moses the man of God,” asks God to teach us to number our days, and is often read as one year turns into the next.
More prayer points
Every verse on this page is quoted word for word from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which its publishers dedicated to the public domain. Copy, print and share these prayer points freely with your church.