New Year Poems
Celebrate God’s goodness in the previous year and look forward to His goodness in the coming year with these Christian New Year poems. Many of these poems are also great for birthdays.
A Brand-New Start
A Brand-New Start
As spring is bursting forth anew
In songs of living praise,
I lift my grateful heart to You
And wonder at Your ways.
The leaves appear on tender shoots,
The flowers lend their grace,
The trees extend their mighty roots
While plants resume their place.
The birds are building tangled nests,
Bright butterflies appear,
The bees are busy on their quests
And frogs sing throaty cheer.
The sun shines bright to crown with light
Your masterful display
Inspiring wonder and delight
That grows from day to day.
To You, my God, I lift my heart
With wonder swept away,
And thank You for the brand-new start
You offer day by day.
Christina Joy Hommes
God’s Mercy Will Extend this Year
God’s Mercy Will Extend this Year
I do not have to wait and hope
God’s mercy will extend this year,
I do not have to fear the day
His faithfulness will disappear;
They both endure while time shall last
And then extend when earth is past.
I do not have to wait and see
What changes He will undergo;
He doesn’t change, He cannot fail
He’s still the same and so I know
That I can trust Him year by year
Until the day He will appear.
I do not have to wait and fear
The things that I will face this year;
With God to guide my steps each day
I know that He is always near.
Whatever comes He’s with me still
To bless me as I do His will.
I do not have to wait to know
The fullness of God’s love for me –
Each day some more He’ll gladly show
If I will set myself to see;
If I will look for what He’s done
I’ll see His blessings one by one.
Christina Joy Hommes
2021
2021
I’m looking on to what’s ahead,
I’m resting on what God has said,
I’m reaching for the prize before,
I’m striving for that happy shore.
I praise the Lord for what has been –
I thank Him for past help again,
I sing in hope of what He’ll do,
I find each day great joy anew.
I live today like it’s my last,
I seek to learn from what is past,
I plan the year like decades lie
Between today and home on high.
I fight the fight with all my strength,
I search love’s depth and height and length,
I die to self and live in Christ
To whom my all is sacrificed.
O Lord my God, I’ll go with you
Across the mighty ocean blue
Or stay at home if You are there –
To be with You is all my prayer.
So, call me forth or bid me stay,
But set my course from day to day
That I might know what I should do
And know that I am pleasing You.
Christina Joy Hommes
As 2020 Closes
As 2020 Closes
As twenty twenty closes
Like other years before,
We stop to see the blessings
Which lined its corridor.
Yes, there were many troubles,
Surprises bad and good,
And many things that happened
We’ve still not understood.
But through it all God drew us
To deeper trust in Him;
He guided and He kept us
When all ahead seemed dim.
He answered prayers and showed us
That when the whole world shakes
He’s still our strength and refuge
And does things for our sakes.
We say goodbye to one year
And gladly greet the next
With hopes it will be brighter
And maybe less complex.
Yet we are still more certain
Whatever comes next year
God goes before to bless us
And Jesus may appear.
Christina Joy Hommes
Reaching to What’s Ahead
Reaching to What’s Ahead
I bring my heart’s desire
For Spirit-sent revival,
For living, holy fire.
You want me to be bearing
Good fruit that will remain
Through years of endless glory
For praise and joy and gain.
Teach me this year to study
And meditate each day
Upon Your Word and live it,
To do the things You say.
Teach me to pray with power,
Consistently with zeal,
That You might get the glory
And I Your grace might feel.
Teach me to truly worship
The God that I confess
With praise and adoration,
With grateful humbleness.
Teach me to know You better,
Your nature, works, and Word,
That I might love and serve You
As by Your love I’m stirred.
Teach me to think of others
As Jesus would, and do
The things that show His kindness
To point them, Lord, to You.
Teach me to be a witness
Whose life and words and face
Line up and tell the story
Of Jesus’ saving grace.
Teach me to be a giver
Like You this year, I pray,
That as a faithful steward
Your kindness I’ll display.
Teach me to be forgiving
As You’ve forgiven me
So I can freely serve You
And Your great mercy see.
Teach me to count each trouble
As joy because I know
It draws me closer to You
As through life’s storm we go.
Teach me to live expecting
Your glad return each day –
Come quickly, dear Lord Jesus,
To catch Your bride away!
That when this year is over
We might look back and see
Good fruit that brings You glory
For all eternity.
Christina Joy Hommes
A few references: John 15:8, 16; Philippians 1:11;
James 5:16-18; Luke 18:1; 2 Corinthians 1:11;
1 John 4:19;
James 1:2-4; Philippians 3:10;
Mark 13:35; 1 John 2:28; Revelation 22:20
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:
but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14
“Ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you,
and ordained you,
that ye should go and bring forth fruit,
and that your fruit should remain:
that whatsoever ye shall ask
of the Father in My Name,
He may give it you.” John 15:16
Forgetting What’s Behind
Forgetting What’s Behind
Lord, as this year is winding down
To close as You designed,
I stop to think of what it held
And leave its weights behind.
The sins I’ve sinned this year, O Lord,
Wash white in Jesus’ blood –
My failures cover in His robes
Of righteousness and good.
The wrongs that have been done to me
By grace I now forgive;
I bring no grudges past this year,
The hurt I won’t relive.
My best successes I’ll forget,
Achievements, earth’s awards –
And in the Spirit’s strength press on
To heaven’s bright rewards.
But all the things I’ve learned of You,
My Savior, God, my Friend,
I carry through the changing years
To life that has no end.
And thoughts of all the things You’ve done
On my behalf in love,
I carry, too – I won’t forget
Now or through years above.
O Lord, I leave this year behind
To press beyond by grace
To know You, serve You, love You more,
To win the prize, the race.
Christina Joy Hommes
“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:
but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14
Life’s Symphony
Life’s Symphony
This year was like a movement
In life’s grand symphony,
Each day a little measure
That makes up history.
Some days were loud, climactic,
Some sang sweet melodies,
Others were deep and minor,
Some didn’t charm or please.
Yet now I hear together
Those measures heard alone,
And hear their moving beauty –
A masterpiece has grown.
Those passing tones have purpose,
Add beauty, depth, and grace,
And all the accidentals
Sound purposeful in place.
Together they are stunning –
Conducted perfectly;
I would not change one measure –
He wrote it masterfully.
My life was just one player,
One instrument He chose,
His score is even richer
With all its ebbs and flows.
These lives all lived together
Resound with joyful praise,
Celestial music ringing
In every note and phrase.
Yet this year’s but one movement
In life’s grand symphony,
Each year builds on the last one
With perfect harmony.
The moment God created,
The melody began,
And since that day, unceasing,
Has grown into His plan.
Someday we’ll hear the music
God wrote into the world
With all its depth and beauty
So perfectly unfurled.
And then the little questions
We had will be explained
Within the larger picture
Which was so well ordained.
Lord, thank you for conducting
This symphony to show
Your grace and love and wisdom
That we Yourself may know.
I know I am not worthy
To be an instrument
In such a work of glory
Your Name to represent.
My skill is very little,
I cannot understand
How You can make such beauty
From nothing by Your hand.
I can’t explain this either:
That somehow my mistakes
Still work into the beauty
That You so freely make.
And yet, what would it sound like
If all of us would play
Without conceit, distraction
Through every passing day?
Lord, here am I, please use me
Throughout this coming year,
Submitted to Your leading –
Your harmonies make clear.
I hear the fading echoes
Of last year’s melody,
As this year peals its waking –
A hopeful hymn to Thee.
Christina Joy Hommes
Year’s Dawn
So often at the year’s dawn
We think of what we’ll do –
New projects and commitments,
And others to renew.
But what if we considered,
As well as all of these,
What we should be this new year
Our God to love and please?
What attitudes are ruling?
What thoughts control my heart?
Who is my King, my focus?
Is my life set apart?
These thoughts of godly being,
In turn will rule the do’s
So I can really keep them
Now and the whole year through.
Christina Joy Hommes
2016
2016
A fresh new year to love my God,
To serve my Lord and King,
To praise Him and recount His deeds,
To trust, to hope, to sing.
A budding year in which to watch
God’s perfect plan unfold,
And, in each petal, grace and love
With mercy to behold.
Three hundred days with sixty-six
To live for Jesus’ sake,
In which to trust His promises
Since He’ll make no mistake.
Here, Lord, this year of mine is Yours
As I am Yours alone,
Throughout this year show me Your ways
Your mercies to make known.
Christina Joy Hommes