Prayers for hope and new beginnings
Starting over after a setback
For fresh starts and a future worth trusting.
Also for setback · starting over · bounced back from failure · rebuilding after failure · recovering from a mistake · picking up the pieces · recovering from failure · picking myself back up · bouncing back
“Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.
It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you.
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.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose.
A prayer
Original writing, not a quotation of Scripture.
Lord, this setback cost me more than I wanted to lose, and starting over feels daunting. But you are the God who makes a way in the wilderness, who does new things even after loss. Redeem the years this cost me.
Help me let go of what’s behind without pretending it didn’t happen, and give me the hope to build again. I don’t need to see the whole rebuilt structure yet, just the strength to lay the first brick. In Jesus’ name, Amen.